Meet Me In The Stars
by MaeglinYedi
Summary: Ellie ends up lost in space and it's all Eddie Brock's pet alien's fault. What's a girl to do stuck in a shithole alien world? Hunt scum, of course. Din is in desperate need of a babysitter who can take care of the child and herself. He finds her in the most unexpected of places. Din Djarin/Ellie Phimister
1. Chapter 1

Din made himself no illusions that he was a good man. Certainly, he'd saved the kid, but only after selling him for an armour's worth of beskar. And suddenly finding himself a single father hadn't changed his desires much. His desire for a good hunt, and afterwards, his desire for a warm body.

He'd had a good hunt, a local bounty that paid enough for fuel and food and a little extra. Which led him to a nondescript building in a crowded, filthy city on a lawless planet in the outer rim. According to the client, this was the place to find a warm body. He'd even made a recommendation, telling him to ask for Ellie and that she was the best fuck he'd ever had. That piqued Din's interest, seeing as the client was the type to surround himself with several beautiful women at all times.

The pod came to a stop beside him as Din looked up at the building. Taking the kid with him inside a brothel wasn't ideal, but he was asleep and the pod was closed and he'd done worse things in his life, some of which the kid had witnessed. And frankly, after the couple of months he'd had, Din was in desperate need of a good fuck.

Inside the building a middle-aged women sat behind a counter while a guy with a blaster on his hip stood beside the elevators, watching him with a bored expression. The woman waved him over and handed him a brochure with pictures of the prostitutes available. Din knew these kind of places. Prostitutes could rent rooms and handed over a portion of their pay in exchange for protection and other services. It meant that they were there willingly, something Din insisted on when selecting a warm body. He refused to fuck slaves.

He glanced over the pictures provided until his gaze came to rest on Ellie. Young, with large brown eyes and short black hair. Pretty, sure, but nothing that stood out. Certainly nothing as exotic as some of the others. But Din was curious so he looked up at the woman.

"Is Ellie available?"

"How long you want her for?" the woman asked while she stared at the screen in front of here, her fingers clacking across a keyboard.

"An hour."

"You're in luck, her last one finished early. You can go right up."

Din paid the fee and took the elevator up to the second floor. He quickly checked on the child, who was still fast asleep, and he closed the pod as he walked to the door marked 10. He knocked, firm but not too loudly. He really did not want to wake the baby.

"Come on in, the door's open!"

Din stepped inside, quickly taking in his surroundings. Escape routes, hiding places, potential weapons and possible threats. Finally, his gaze landed on Ellie. She sat at a small table in the corner near the window, a paper notebook and pen in front of her, and she looked at him with a frown. She was dressed in a grey sweater and black pants, not the kind of attire Din was used to seeing on someone in her profession.

"Hi," Ellie said, still frowning at him. "Why don't you take all that metal off and make yourself comfortable."

"No, the armour stays on. I'll be comfortable enough."

Ellie's frown, if anything, deepened. "At least take your helmet off so I can kiss you."

"The helmet definitely stays on."

"Well, crap," Ellie said, followed by a soft mumble that sounded suspiciously like "No, we can't eat him, he's a paying customer and he's done nothing wrong, Venom."

Din felt entirely out of sorts. This encounter hadn't gone at all like he'd expected it would and in Din's experience that meant trouble. He reached behind him, hand brushing the pod to make sure the kid was still there.

Ellie's gaze followed his movement and her eyes narrowed to slits. She jumped up from her seat so fast her chair clattered to the floor. "Why the hell would you bring a baby with you while visiting a hooker? What kind of a sick pervert are you?"

Din pulled his blaster without much thought. He was running on instinct now that he'd found a threat to the child. She knew the baby was there and that was impossible and therefore she was a threat.

Ellie's eyes widened before her entire body rippled in black oil slick until a beast Din had never seen before stood in her place. Din fired his blaster right into the beast's chest, but the only thing that happened was the beast opening his giant maw, teeth and long tongue dripping with saliva, before it jumped right on top of him. His blaster was tossed aside against the wall, followed immediately by himself. His helmet, and with it his head, collided against the stone with a crack and for a few moments Din saw stars. When his vision cleared again, he was lying on the floor staring up at the ceiling.

The beast was gone and Ellie had opened the pod and was staring at the child with a fascinated expression. Din briefly considered using his flamethrower but she stood too closely to the pod. Instead he shot out his grappling line and he gave it a big yank the moment it connected to the pod.

Nothing happened. The pod hung suspended in mid air but refused to move.

"You're his dad!" Ellie suddenly said and gave him a friendly smile. "I'm so sorry. I thought you were a paedophile. We get a surprising amount of those around here. Venom enjoys hunting them."

Very slowly, as not to escalate the situation any further, Din got up and grabbed his blaster from the floor. He considered shooting her but didn't want to risk provoking the black beast again. "What are you?" he asked, his voice raspy.

"Me? Human, with a few surprises up my sleeve." Ellie shrugged and reached inside the pod to pick up the child. Din's heart skipped a beat. "As for Venom, he's a klyntar and I'm his ride and he likes to keep me in mint condition so no shooting me unless you really want to piss him off."

Din decided that no, he did not want to piss Venom the klyntar off anymore than he already had since he had never heard of them and had no idea how to fight one. A blaster shot to the chest at point blank range had done nothing to hurt it.

Ellie set her chair upright and sat down, settling the child in her lap. She smiled down at him and the child made a happy sound in return. "He's like me."

"No," Din said, standing stiffly as he stared at the girl with his child in her lap.

Ellie snorted. "Not like Venom. Like me." She tapped a finger against the side of her head. "He can read minds, like I can." She frowned at him again. "Except your mind. I don't know what that helmet is made of, but it blocks everything. Very annoying."

"Are you even a prostitute?" Din asked, unsure what else to do. Not even surrounded by storm troopers and with the child in an imp's hands had he felt this out of depth.

Ellie snickered. "Kind of. Not a physical one, but all my clients leave here convinced they've had the best sex of their lives. Meanwhile I get to rummage through their minds and get intel so Venom can hunt the scum of the earth."

"Peadophiles," Din said, now finally understanding what kind of person he was dealing with. "Are you a bounty hunter?"

Ellie shook her head. "A concerned citizen with a hungry symbiote. And we focus on people who hurt children. Child molesters, slavers, child traffickers. The list goes on. You have no idea the depravities people get up to when it comes to children."

"I can imagine," Din said. He'd seen a few things in his day.

Ellie's eyes were suddenly old beyond her years. "No. Unless you can read minds, you have no idea." She looked down at the child again and smiled at him, though it looked fragile. "And you really need to stop leaving the baby alone. And stop dropping him all the time, for fuck's sake."

Din had nothing to say to that since he agreed with her. He was trying, but he was well aware of his unsuitability to raise a child.

"But you saved him from a horrible fate, so you get credit for that." Ellie giggled, and the child joined her. "And maybe keep him away from your ship's controls. He's a little young to be a pilot."

Din stared at the giggling duo and realized Ellie was very young. "How old are you?"

Ellie looked up at him with a challenge in her eyes. "I'm 18. An adult. And I don't actually have sex with my clients."

"No, I got that. But you're still very young to be hunting the scum of the earth, as you put it." Din had been younger than her on his first hunt, but he was raised in the mandalorian way.

Ellie shrugged. "Venom and I are not from around here. We were trafficked last year. Abducted. Some crime boss wanted a klyntar, but they hadn't counted on the klyntar's host having her own powers." Her eyes became hard but her lips trembled for a second. "It doesn't matter. We're stuck here, with no way home because neither one of us knows where home even is. So we might as well make ourselves useful here."

Din didn't feel pity for the girl and her strange companion. She found herself in a shitty situation, like most people living in the outer rim including himself, but she was doing all right for herself. He did feel some kind of kinship with her, though he didn't care to examine too closely why that was. But more importantly, he saw an opportunity.

Before he could question this new plan, he asked her, "Would you like a different job? I can't pay much, but I have a ship and I can get you out of here."


	2. Chapter 2

Logan growled as he glared in the direction Eddie Brock and his creepy alien BFF had gone. "That fucker is way too slippery."

A string of strange crimes and a small mountain of headless corpses had brought Ellie and Colossus to the greater San Francisco area. Logan had decided to tag along after the Avengers, which had alerted the X-men to these potential mutant crimes, had sent them several grainy security camera recordings of some kind of huge black monster. After some sleuthing they ended up at Eddie Brock's door, a reporter who might know more about the situation after his involvement with the strange happenings at the Life Foundation some six months prior.

Ellie took one look at Eddie Brock's mind and blurted, "Oh fuck, it's some kind of creepy alien that's living inside of him and they've become man-eating BFF's."

What followed was one chaotic chase around San Francisco as Logan made it his personal mission to carve the alien out of Eddie Brock. Thankfully, the alien wasn't able to slice open Colossus's metal skin with its very sharp teeth and claws, but Wolverine's healing powers were put to the test a time or two. Ellie kept back somewhat, trying desperately to influence Eddie Brock's mind into surrendering peacefully. And while Eddie's mind was human and easy to manipulate, the alien's mind was as strange and slippery as the rest of him and Ellie couldn't get a grip on it.

"Let me try to blow it up," Ellie said as they caught their breaths and looked in the direction the alien had gone. Night had fallen and they were near the ocean now, and there was enough space around them to keep the collateral damage to a minimum while she released her explosive powers.

Logan frowned, as always a little over-protective when it came to her and the other recently graduated X-men, but Colossus nodded in agreement with her. "We have tried everything else, Wolverine," he said, placing a huge metal hand on Logan's shoulder. "Let Negasonic see what she can do."

"All right. Kid, we'll keep him distracted and you keep low and come in hot."

Ellie nodded, feeling confident in their plan. It was nothing they hadn't trained for already. She used her telepathy to remain unseen to her surroundings, though how much it influenced the alien's mind she wasn't sure. After a few long moments of letting Logan and Colossus herd it towards the ocean some more, Ellie saw her chance and activated her powers as she levitated herself into the air and dropped on top of the alien just as she unleashed her built up explosion.

Eddie Brock was blown away, his body sailing through the air and landing with the cracks of a few broken bones on a bicycle lane. Well, that served him right. He shouldn't have run around the city eating people. Ellie got to her feet, looking around to see if she had damaged the alien. She couldn't see it, and she turned on her feet a few times to look for it. No such luck, until she caught a few panicked thoughts from Colossus and she glanced down. Her dark X-men suit was covered in this alien oil slick that seeped inside of her.

"Oh hell no," she muttered as she rubbed her hands against the alien to wipe it off. It didn't work and a liquid heat seeped inside of her while a new sentience blinked to life inside her own mind. She desperately tried to stay calm and concentrate so she could take control of the alien, but the clammy hands of a panic attack curled around her throat. Or it might be the alien taking over her body as her flesh shifted and she grew at least two feet.

Ellie was stunned and terrified and hopelessly outgunned. They had never trained for what to do when being possessed by a man-eating alien.

"Step away from Eddie," the alien growled, and Ellie wondered how such a deep voice could come from her body. "Or I will eat first her liver, than her lungs and finally her heart."

Logan snarled as he crouched over the barely moving body of Eddie Brock. Colossus, who stood behind Logan, held up both hands. "You want your friend back and we want ours, so I am sure we can come to an agreement."

Ellie could kiss Colossus for always being the voice of reason. They would do an exchange and she would be free of this alien prison.

Before anything else could be said a strange light came out of nowhere and illuminated Ellie and the alien as though they were the stars on a stage. A police helicopter, probably answering the dozens of 911 calls they must have left in their wake with their pursuit of a big, creepy alien across the city. Except Ellie couldn't hear any rotors and when the alien looked up she saw a bright circle of light in the centre of what looked like a vessel the size of a small town hovering silently in the sky above them.

Ellie and the alien were yanked off their feet and up in the air. Ellie desperately tried to use her telepathy to bring them back down again while the alien threw out black tendrils to find purchase on the ground. All it found were some small trees that snapped as they were pulled higher and higher into the air towards what Ellie now realized was an actual spaceship. Had they come to catch their wayward fellow alien, to bring him home? Then why the fuck were they bringing her along for the ride?

The last thing she saw as the alien looked down was Logan jumping up with a desperate grimace but falling short to reach her by several yards. Colossus stood with his arms outstretched, shouting her name, and then everything went black.

A second later, Ellie woke up lying on a cold floor. As she looked around she realized much more time had passed than one second. She found herself locked in a transparent enclosure, big enough to stand up and move around in. It stood high up, surrounded on all sides by seats filled with some of the most bizarre creatures she'd ever seen. Her best friend was covered in metal skin and one of her doctors was covered in blue fur, so she wasn't judging, but still... one creature looked like a giant brown slug with a huge mouth who kept a blue and a green skinned woman on two separate leashes. The women had strange fleshy growths coming from their heads and cowered on the floor beside the slug. There were creatures with all types of horns, very hairy beings while others seemed entirely bald or covered in scales or wearing cloaks and hoods and helmets that covered all their features. She had never seen as many different skin colours before. All were talking and gesturing to her enclosure while one human looking man with grey skin and red eyes stood apart and pointed randomly at her and some of the audience.

He looked like an auctioneer. She was at a fucking auction and she was up on the block.

What the ever loving hell was going on?

Thoughts of captivity and experiments and Hydra sprang up to march around her mind, but she pushed those away with all her might. She had no time for her PTSD right now. She needed information and she needed it now.

Slowly, warily, she pushed herself to her feet, thankful she at least was still wearing her X-men suit. Something constricted around her throat and a careful touch of her hand revealed it to be a collar or sorts. She let her senses spread out around her and the first thing she noticed was the alien rolling beneath her skin. It was still there but subdued, though if it was caused by the collar or if they had been drugged she wasn't sure. The second thing she noticed as she spread her senses out further was that no one in the room spoke English. Not verbally, and not in their minds either.

Ellie had no idea what language they were speaking. She had never heard it in her life, but if she had to guess it sounded like the love child between some Scandinavian language and something from Eastern Europe. Not that she was an expert. The only foreign languages she spoke was some high school level Spanish and a teeny amount of Russian Colossus had taught her for fun during their long days training together. When she listened in on some of the individual minds around her she discovered a whole slew more of incomprehensible languages.

The professor had trained her for this. How to read and manipulate minds when you did not speak the subject's language. Focus on images and emotions instead of words. She could do this.

She almost wished she hadn't when the first subject's mind informed her in vivid technicolour that he planned to separate her from the alien and use her up in some sort of gang bang with his entire tribe while using the alien for some sort of blood sport tournament. The next mind wasn't much better, though that dude planned to keep her and the alien together while he fucked them silly.

She withdrew from the minds of the customers with a shudder and instead focused on the auctioneer. There she found much more useful images pertaining to her collar and the enclosure they were keeping her in. The collar was for control – no surprises there – and contained electricity, drugs and if all else failed, explosives to control her and the alien. It had to go. The enclosure had an invisible door, and both things were controlled by the remote in the auctioneer's hand. Thankfully, he had no mental defences and it was as easy as anything to mentally push the right buttons in his mind.

With a click the collar opened and she yanked it off at once. Next the panel in front of her slid open and she threw the collar in the crowd. If they were going to use the explosives they could blow up their customers.

The silence that fell across the room as she jumped down from the platform and onto the auction floor would have been hilarious had her situation not been so dire. The alien churned beneath her skin, moving inside of her as if testing the waters now that they were released from their chains. Ellie did nothing to stop it as it burst forth, even though she knew it would end in a massacre. All these people were slavers and rapists and they deserved what they got.

The alien growled and opened its mouth wide while people around them jumped up, screaming and pushing others out of the way to get to the door. Ellie watched quietly from within the prison of her own body as the alien tore into the crowd with teeth and claws. Many people lost their heads, which the alien swallowed whole and quite a few others found themselves disembowelled with their guts spilling across the floor. The smell was indescribable, like liquid metal and shit, and Ellie was glad she was no longer in control of her body or she would have been sick all over the intestines around them. When everybody around them was dead the alien looked up to see a large metal door closing over the only way out of the room. It threw their body against it but the door wouldn't budge.

"Hey," Ellie whispered in her mind. "Let me out and I'll blow it up."

The alien retracted inside of her without comment and Ellie took a deep breath, resolutely not looking at the carnage around her and doing her very best not to hurl, and she gathered her power, ran towards the door and blew it clean of its hinges. The alien left her in control, for which she was grateful, and they ran through a brightly lid corridor lined with metal doors on both sides. Behind one she heard the mind of something large and snarling and terrifying and she hurried by it, but the following door hid the thoughts of at least a dozen children. She stopped, eyed the electronic keypad beside the door for a few seconds before stepping in front of the door and using just a fraction of her power to blow it open. Children poured out but Ellie was already at the next door which revealed five or so large hairy dog people in cuffs.

"Come on," she yelled, skipping the next door because really hungry thoughts, but the door after that revealed a whole bunch of women of all sorts of species.

Together they ran out the corridor, through a hallway and out into the night.

A young girl with dark skin and the most gorgeous turquoise eyes tried grabbing her hand but Ellie shook her off because what she was seeing made no sense.

The girl tried to grab her hand again, but Ellie looked down at her with a shake of her head. "Just follow the others and find the police, okay?"

The girl reluctantly stepped away from her and hurried after the other children that had disappeared into the night. Ellie hardly noticed because she was too busy staring up at the sky.

There were three moons in the sky. They stood in front of some warehouse, surrounded on all sides by a dark, grimy city, and there were three moons in the sky.

Maybe the alien knew what was going on.

"Venom," the alien growled in her mind.

"Huh?" Ellie said, still staring up in shock.

"My name is Venom."

Ellie wondered briefly, hysterically, if Eddie Brock had named his pet alien after some 80s rock band.

"They were named Poison," the alien, Venom, grumbled. "Eddie made this joke, too. And I named myself."

"Cool." Ellie took a deep shuddering breath. "Any idea where we are and how to get back home?"

"Somewhere in space and no."

Ellie squeezed her eyes shut against tears that wanted to fall. "Well, fuck."


	3. Chapter 3

A very large part of Ellie wanted to panic, curl up into a ball and cry.

She was lost in space. She was on a strange planet, no clue where in the galaxy, with only the clothes on her back and Eddie Brock's pet alien grumbling in her mind.

She wanted to panic, but she didn't. She needed to get her priorities straight. What were her immediate needs? Food, water and shelter. Once she had that sorted out she could explore, learn the language and find a way to go back home.

As she wandered into the city she quickly realized food wasn't an issue. There were hundreds of little stalls selling baked goods, mystery meats on a stick, strange fruits and much more. It was child's play to make the vendors believe she had paid them while in reality she had no money to spend. The fruit was sweet, the meat spicy and she even found a freshly squeezed fruity beverage that reminded her of coconut water. As her hunger and thirst were taken care of she was suddenly overcome with a bone deep exhaustion. She dug through the minds of the people around her until she found directions to what seemed like a boarding house. Small rooms with even smaller bathrooms, for rent for a day, week or month. Ellie convinced the owner, an older guy with red skin who spent way too much time thinking about her boobs, that she had paid for a month. Her room was filled with rusty metal furniture and a simple sleeping pad on the floor.

Ellie sank down onto the pad, sure sleep would come at once, but her thoughts were many and slightly panicked and her mind refused to let her rest.

She needed to learn the language. Just rummaging through people's thoughts was incredibly limiting when it came to finding information. She couldn't ask questions and she had many that needed answering. Like, where the fuck is earth at, and how do we get there?

Ellie cleared her throat. "Hey, Venom, do you know how to fly a spaceship?"

Venom's head popped up out of her belly, his huge white eyes clearly visible in the darkness around them. "No, there was never a need to learn that. My kind spreads by asteroids."

"Your kind?" Ellie decided to just roll with the alien head sticking out of her stomach. There was only so much you could freak out about and she had more than enough things going on already.

"Klyntar. We are symbiotes. Eddie is a very good host for us. He accepted us and let us feed and fuck whenever we wanted to."

And that was way more information than Ellie had ever wanted to know about Eddie Brock, who was really into hentai, apparently. She didn't judge. Much. "You want to get back to Eddie, and I want to get back to my friends, right?"

Venom stared at her with unreadable eyes. "Yes."

"Then we need to work together," Ellie said, knowing it to be true. "We need to learn the language, we need to learn how to fly a spaceship and we need to learn where earth is and how to get there."

Venom was quiet for a moment, tilting his head a little. "You will be my host and I will keep you safe until we get back to Eddie."

"It's a deal," Ellie said, feeling inexplicably better that she wasn't alone in this mess. Sure, she would have preferred Colossus or Logan or even the professor at her side, but at least she had someone. "Let's get some sleep and tomorrow we start our mission to get back home."

Venom nodded. "Good night," he said, and sank back into her body.

Ellie closed her eyes, turned on her side and willed sleep to come.

The next few days were spent taking care of their immediate needs. They learned about money, credits as they were called, and Ellie quickly realized there were enough criminals walking around who she didn't mind mentally ordering to give her small amounts of credits. Not enough for them to truly miss the money, but more than plenty for her to buy food, some extra clothes and a towel and some toiletries. She could now properly pay the vendors, who for the most part were honest, hard-working people who she really didn't want to steal from.

She found the space equivalent of a dollar store; random, cheaply made goods for cheap prices. She got some snacks and drinks to keep in her room, some blankets and pillows to try to make her sleeping pad resemble something of a bed, a few items she thought were puzzles to keep herself entertained in her bare room, and a notebook and some pens. But her real prize was a small, radio-like item with separate chips to put inside that were language courses. She briefly commandeered the mind of an unsuspecting shopper to figure out what language she needed – Galactic basic, as it turned out – and she added a whole bunch of other language chips and the corresponding course books and many more notebooks.

From then on she diligently spent hours each day learning Galactic basic, roping Venom into practising the pronunciation with her and filling notebook after notebook with words in this new Aurebesh script.

Venom didn't interfere in her daily tasks and let her take the lead in exploring their strange new world. He answered her questions and commented on their situation occasionally but otherwise was a quiet presence in her mind and body. Just when Ellie thought playing host to a klyntar was the easiest thing in the world, about a week after they woke up lost in space, shit hit the fan.

They were out later than usual, the weak, red sun having already set. They'd had dinner in a small eatery that was quickly becoming a favourite and that served huge bowls of soup that reminded her a lot of a bowl of fresh ramen. The teenage daughter of the owner had figured out Ellie was learning the language and had insisted on chatting with her so Ellie could practise. Just this simple social interaction had reminded Ellie of time spent with friends and she couldn't resist spending the extra time stumbling over words and laughing about it. As they finally walked back to their room through the narrow streets, Ellie quickly noticed they were being followed. One look at the guy's mind told her he thought she was a child and planned on raping her before selling her to some slavers. She knew she looked like she was about twelve without makeup, okay, but she hadn't yet found the courage to try some of the strange beauty products they sold here. She lured the guy into an alley, planning on robbing him blind and permanently altering his mind so that he would never look at children like that again.

However, before she could even turn around to confront the guy, Venom forced his way out, took over her body and ate the guy whole. Clothes and all. Then he retreated again without any comment and Ellie was left staring into space, trembling with anger and disgust.

"Venom," Ellie said in an unnaturally calm voice given the circumstances. "Why the ever loving fuck did you just eat that guy? I had it under control."

"I was hungry," Venom grumbled in her mind.

"How could you be hungry," Ellie yelled, slightly hysterical. "We just had a huge bowl of space ramen with meat and eggs."

Venom rolled around her midriff in what she thought might be a shrug. "I get hungry and I need live food or else I will start consuming your organs until you die, and you cannot die because you are my host until we get back home to Eddie."

"Wait, what?" Ellie ran a hand across her face as she shook her head. "You need to eat people or you accidentally kill me?"

"Yes."

"Is that why you and Eddie ate all those people in San Francisco?"

"Yes, why else would we do that?"

Ellie shrugged. "I thought you two had some weird serial killer fetish."

"Eddie said I can eat bad guys as long as I don't get caught. This was a bad guy. I was hungry. So I ate him."

Ellie didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry. "You can't just eat people just because they are bad guys. They have a right to a fair trial. Law enforcement needs to handle them."

Venom snorted. "There is no law enforcement in this place. You were complaining about it just this morning."

Which, true. Ellie had figured out that this planet was a lawless shithole with barely any central government. The real people in charge were several crime syndicates, and if you wanted justice or revenge you could hire a bounty hunter or mercenary, which cost a lot of money. And if you didn't have that kind of money, then you were shit out of luck.

"But on earth you can't just eat people."

Venom shrugged again. "We are not on earth now."

"Okay, true. Is there anything else you could eat instead of people?"

"Big, live animals."

Ellie looked around. There were no big animals to be had in this grimy city and she didn't dare go beyond its borders, having no clue what kind of alien creatures lived out there in the wild. "Okay, so how often do you need to feed?"

"About once a week."

"But only really bad people. Murderers and rapists. Not some unsuspecting pickpocket who is just trying to feed his or her kids. You wait for my signal before eating anyone."

"Fine."

"Oh, and maybe strip him of valuables and weapons first. Credits are no use to us if you eat them."

"Sure."

Ellie bit her lip and desperately tried not to imagine the professor's face when he found out she had given her alien occupant the go ahead to eat people. And then she wondered if Eddie Brock had faced a similar dilemma. Then again, there were plenty of big animals on earth. Feral hogs were everywhere and legal to hunt. Perhaps she should have a firm talk with Eddie and Venom once they got back home, and explain that feral pigs were a much better and far more legal option than people when it came to Venom's dietary requirements. But that didn't change their current predicament. Venom needed to eat, and Ellie needed Venom. He was her only companion, her only friend.

She was disgusted with herself, but surprisingly the disgust was aimed mostly at the fact that she felt very little disgust at the idea of eating people. Was this a side effect of hosting a klyntar? A biological adaptation to make sure both organisms thrived in their symbiotic relationship? Perhaps, but Ellie was too exhausted to contemplate all facets of her relationship with Venom.

Once this hurdle was taken, they fell back into their routine of language studies and exploring their surroundings. Between her studies with the language course, hearing it spoken all day and reading minds filled with it, Ellie soon had a basic understanding of Galactic Basic. The grammar still tripped her up, and there were plenty of words still to learn, but she could now communicate with vendors at least. That led her to a second hand book store as she hunted for information on big animals for Venom to eat. After haltingly explaining what she wanted, though not the reason why, the clerk helped her find several books on animals found in the galaxy.

She eagerly read them until she saw the description of a sarlacc pit, and then she regretted ever opening the book. She was going to have nightmares for weeks to come. But reading books did help her language studies so she went back to the book store and bought some books on space ships and space travel and maps of the known galaxy, and just for fun one battered romance novel about the star crossed relationship between a wookie man, whatever the hell that was, and a human female. After yet another trip to the book store, whose owner now knew her by name, and a book on the most common alien races, she realized she'd actually freed a bunch of wookies as she had fled the auction warehouse.

After asking the book store owner about planets that might resemble earth he sent her in the direction of a knowledge droid, which as she understood it was some sort of paid, robotic version of Wikipedia. She drew a very basic map of earth as best she could in her notebook (Australia looked a little weird, like a turd dangling off Indonesia, and the less said about Russia the better) and then, four weeks since they woke up lost in space, she set out to meet the droid who could hopefully tell them where earth was and how to get there.

"I have no knowledge of this planet," the droid told her in a tinny voice after she shoved some credits down the slot and showed it her artistic rendering of their home world. "It might exist in the unknown region or in a different galaxy."

Dread pooled in Ellie's belly with an icy intensity. "Show me nearby galaxies, please." She was just a girl from the Bronx and her knowledge of astronomy was minute at best, but she had been to the Hayden Planetarium on a class trip and she'd been fascinated with all she'd learned.

A screen blinked to life on the droid's chest and a slideshow of galaxies started. The first two she didn't recognize but the third one looked a lot like the Andromeda galaxy, and then, number four in all its glory, the Milky Way.

"Stop," she snapped, tapping on the screen for emphasis. "This one, where is it and how do I get there."

"The Drudia galaxy is approximately 3 billion light years removed from your current location. There exist no known hyperspace routes to this galaxy and current technology does not allow for travel between galaxies without the use of hyperspace."

Ellie balled her hands into fists to keep from physically assaulting the droid out of sheer frustration. "Bullshit, I'm from there. Someone travelled that distance somehow."

"The Soma people are a race of highly intelligent beings that have left their home world to permanently live on their self contained space ships while they travel between galaxies and trade goods. They have never shared their technology with anyone outside their own people."

"Do they trade in slaves?"

"Slavery has been outlawed by the New Republic –"

"I know that," Ellie said and inhaled a deep breath to calm herself. "But hypothetically speaking, would the Soma people trade in slaves?"

"Hypothetically speaking, yes, they would."

Ellie asked the droid a few more questions about the Soma people but they were a very secretive society that came and went as they pleased and the droid couldn't tell her much. With heavy steps and a numb mind Ellie walked back to their room. They were in the wrong galaxy and the only people who could get them out of there were the assholes who had kidnapped them in the first place, and who incidentally had some way to knock them both out and sell them off as slaves.

On top of that, Ellie had no way of contacting them in the first place. Or did she? Her steps faltered as she realized she had never interrogated the people behind that auction, who she was sure had been locals. She had been so busy with trying to get them out of there that she had completely forgotten about those fuckers, or at least the ones Venom hadn't ripped to shreds.

"Hey Venom, want to go hunt some scum?"

Venom coiled in her abdomen, leaving a hot trail in its wake. "Yes, always."

They made their way back to the warehouse, which they found deserted. But a quick scan of their surroundings produced at least one mind with knowledge of the auctions, and Ellie worked her way up from there, following leads, tracking people down, all while Venom feasted on a smorgasbord of scum once Ellie was done with them.

It took them three days to find the auctioneer cowering in his office once he recognized her. He'd been one of the firsts out of the auction room, apparently, before the carnage had started.

"How did you procure us?" Ellie asked, keeping the man trapped in place with her telepathy while Venom stuck his head out of her chest and growled at him.

"The Soma, they came to us," the man whispered, desperately trying to get away from Venom's gaping maw. "They offered us a wholesale lot of rare beasts. Klyntars are extinct in this galaxy, so we would get a very nice price for one since they are very popular for protection and sports."

Ellie realized this guy was pretty high up in the local crime syndicate and that their two biggest sources of income was the spice and the slave trade. She filed away a few names and faces she saw in his mind. "How do you contact the Soma?"

The auctioneer looked at her blankly. "We don't. They come to us, if we are lucky every decade or so. Sometimes not as often as that if there are armed conflicts."

Ellie released her mental hold on the guy and let Venom eat him. Just as he was done swallowing the auctioneer the door burst open and another guy ran in, blaster in hand. Ellie froze him in place with her telepathy and waited patiently for Venom to retreat so she could take a casual stroll through the guy's mind. He was the auctioneer's brother and part of the crime family that ran the syndicate, like some space mob. He also had a taste for very young girls, and Ellie's heart skipped a beat when she recognized a pair of turquoise eyes in the guy's thoughts. The little girl who had grabbed her hand at the auction house hadn't made it far before being picked up by the syndicate and the guy had decided to keep her for himself. He had then spent the next few weeks fucking the girl to death, using her up until the poor thing could take no more, her broken body giving out.

"Eat him," Ellie said and Venom didn't need to be told twice. Afterwards, she quietly and methodically stripped the office of valuables and then somehow made her way back to their room, though once she was laying on her sleeping pad she had no recollection of how she had made it back.

"I don't think we can go home," she whispered into the darkness, and Venom stretched out beside her, tendrils coiling around her torso while his head pressed against the side of hers. Ellie clung and Venom clung right back.

"I'd like to think the X-men are still looking for me, but how would they know where I am?"

"They would not know," Venom growled into her ear. "They would not think to look in a different galaxy."

"We're stuck here, in this miserable shithole, where little girls are fucked to death and nobody cares." Ellie swallowed around a lump in her throat and wiped a hand across her face. It came away wet.

"You care," Venom said. "You would like to hunt them all down, this type of scum."

Ellie smiled against the side of Venom's face. "I sure would. And you?"

"I love a good hunt," Venom grumbled.

"How about we do that then? But we do it methodically. Not just baiting crooks in dark alleys. We go after the big players. I mean, you need to eat and I need a purpose, so we might as well spend our time doing this." The more Ellie thought about it, the more she liked the idea. Anything to keep the burn of grief in her chest at bay.

Venom tightened his coils around her briefly in a comforting squeeze. "It's a deal."


	4. Chapter 4

Din stood waiting patiently, the child held in his arms, as Ellie and Venom had a hushed conversation in a language he wasn't familiar with. Ellie seemed in favour of accepting his offer but Venom looked to have some doubts. If he was honest, Din himself had some doubts as well about the offer he had made. He didn't trust easily, but on the other hand, he needed help and that thing back on the ship didn't cut it when it came to child care. Ellie, on the other hand, seemed to have an instant connection with the child, probably because of their similar powers, and her companion was shockingly powerful. Din made himself no illusions that if Venom had truly wanted him dead he'd be dead. But the aggression they had shown had been in defence of the child, not as a personal attack against him.

Together those two were the perfect choice to keep the child safe. Din needed to be able to go out and work now that Greef Karga had restored him to the bounty hunter guild. He was chronically low on credits, the child needed stuff and the ship needed repairs.

But what had convinced him to make the offer was the child himself. He was an excellent judge of character and he had taken an instant liking to Ellie, and even when Venom had poked his quite terrifying head out of Ellie's chest the child hadn't cared.

Din snapped out of his musings when Ellie turned to look at him with a smile while Venom disappeared inside of her.

"We'll take the job," Ellie said, and Din simultaneously felt relief and dread.

"Excellent," he said with a nod of his head, and stepped up to the pod and placed the child inside.

"We have to stop by our place to get our stuff, but after that we're good to go."

"Is your place far?" Din asked as he watched Ellie pull a shoulder bag out from under the table and stuff her things inside.

"Nah, just a ten minute walk." She followed him out of the room and into the elevator. "I realize now that you haven't actually gotten what you came for. I can recommend a colleague if you want."

It took Din a moment to realize what she meant and then he felt oddly embarrassed. "I'm good. But thank you for the offer."

Once inside the lobby, Ellie offered the woman behind the counter a huge grin. "Caro, I'm leaving you for this guy."

Caro looked entirely unimpressed with the situation. "Please tell me you're not running off with a Mandalorian. I told you all those silly romance novels would rot your brain."

"I'm totally running off with a Mandalorian!" Ellie leaned a hip against the counter. "Now can someone please tell me what a Mandalorian is?"

"The guy you're running off with," Caro said in a deadpan voice as she handed Ellie a handful of credits. "You're one of our best earners. That guy dumps you and you come right back, you hear?" she added with a surprising amount of sincerity.

"Will do. Take care of yourself, Caro."

Caro was back to being unimpressed again as she waved them off.

Din trailed after Ellie through the busy streets, the pod closed and floating right beside him. In no time Ellie led them inside an old building, up a flight of stairs and into a small, messy room.

"Sorry, I wasn't expecting company," she said as she pulled some clothes off one of two metal chairs and waved Din into it. After he sat down he lifted the child out of the pod and put him on the floor. The kid seemed delighted with the change of scenery and toddled off to explore the room.

Din's eyes were drawn towards the biggest wall in the room, which was almost entirely covered in swats of paper filled with names with lines drawn between them and notes explaining connections. The vast majority of the names had red X's through them.

"You've been busy," Din said with a nod towards the wall.

"A girl's got to have her hobbies," she replied with a wink, but then sobered up immediately. "They're sending out bounty hunters to bring down what they're calling the phantom killer. They don't know it's me, but that's just a matter of time before one gets lucky and catches up."

Din hummed in agreement. "Best to get out before you have a puck with your face on it. That kind of thing is very hard to get rid of."

"Yeah," Ellie sighed and continued gathering her belongings. Clothes were stuffed in bags, blankets were rolled up and several metal crates were stacked together. "Here is where I heard your name before," Ellie said out of the blue as she was loading up the last crate. "It's on my to read list." She held up a creased book with a drawing on the cover of a Mandalorian in completely non-functional armour, with a scantily dressed twi'lek female in his arms. The title was 'The Mandalorian's Revenge.'

"That's not going on my ship," Din said.

"Oh, come on. I paid money for that and haven't even read it yet."

"That armour is an insult to my people." Din was glad for his helmet so Ellie couldn't see his grin. The child came toddling over and handed him a book that was titled 'The Jedi's Temptation'.

"That goes in the crate, too," Ellie announced. "We're not wasting unread books."

Finally everything was packed and Ellie levitated the whole pile with a wave of her hand.

"Impressive," Din said while the child looked up at the floating pile with wide, hungry eyes. He raised his own little hand and waved it around. "Now is not the time," Din said as he picked the child up and put him in his pod. The child squeaked in protest. "I'm sure Ellie will teach you later."

Ellie smiled down at the child. "I promise, my little green jelly bean. I'll teach you everything I know."

The child stared intently at her for a moment before settling down in his pod.

"His mind is so fascinating," Ellie told him as he closed the pod. "He's very much a child but certain aspects of his mind are much more developed than you'd expect for someone so young. He's a very strong empath, for example."

"He's fifty years old."

"He's what now?"

Din enjoyed the look of shock and light incomprehension on her face. "His species grows slowly."

"I'll say. He's older than I am," she said with a laugh.

"He's older than both of us combined," Din said and steered the pod out of the room.

The trek to the port where his ship was stored took just over half an hour. Din led the way, the pod by his side, while Ellie brought up the rear, her belongings floating behind her. The people around them were so used to seeing floating things that none realised it wasn't a mechanical system but Ellie's strange powers. The ship was where he left it, in the same condition as before. He really needed to get some credits and hire a good mechanic to fix her up.

The door to the ship had barely opened when IG-11 popped his head out. "Welcome back, Mando and child and guest. Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, please," Ellie said as Din sighed. He'd meant to sell him for scraps the first chance he got but every time he tried that he remembered Kuiil's still body and the conversation they'd had before it all went to hell and he couldn't do it. Besides that, the thing had saved his life, and then had saved all of their lives. It had been willing to sacrifice itself until Cara had pointed out they only needed to throw its self-destruct unit at the storm troopers, not the whole droid. And now Din was stuck with it.

He was getting soft in his old age, and over a droid of all things.

"I'm Ellie."

"I'm IG-11. Welcome aboard. I'll have your tea ready in a moment."

Ellie smiled at him over her shoulder as she levitated her belongings inside. "What a friendly droid."

Din sighed again. "We're leaving immediately. Just put your stuff here and we'll find room for it later."

Just a few moments later they were sat in the cockpit, Ellie with the child in her lap and a cup of tea in her hand. Din got the ship going, ran a few checks and then steered them into the sky.

"Oh my god," Ellie said in a rather strangled voice. "We're actually going into space. I've never been in space. This is terrifying."

"You've never been to space before?" Din asked as he glanced at her.

"Not when I was conscious. The Soma took us and moved us across space but I don't remember anything about that. Just waking up in an enclosure on that shithole planet."

Din made an affirmative sound and concentrated on flying while Ellie gaped and prattled on in excitement. She'd been taken by the Soma, a mythical people that travelled between galaxies. Did that mean that she was from a different galaxy? Din made a mental note to ask her later. Let her enjoy her first foray into space for now.

After a while Ellie fell quiet as she leaned back, gently stroking a hand across the child's body, whose eyes were drifting shut. "Were are we actually going?" Ellie asked quietly.

"Nevarro," Din said, turning to look at her. "That thing you do..."

"Telepathy," Ellie guessed with a smile.

"Yes, that. I want you to look into the mind of Greef Karga, the head of the bounty hunter guild there. He's the one who got me the bounty for the child in the first place, but after that he betrayed us before fighting on our side again."

"You want to know what he's really planning with little Yanto here."

"Yanto?" Din asked, wondering where that name came from. He still hadn't bothered naming the child.

"The child's name," Ellie said, looking at him as if he was slow. "The name his parents gave him. It's in his head."

"Huh." Din felt a little stupid for never realizing the child's parents would have named their kid. "Are his parents still alive?"

Ellie shook her head with a sad smile. "They were killed when he was stolen. He then spent a long time with several uncaring people until you came along and he decided to adopt you." She leaned down and pressed a kiss to the sleeping child's head.

Yanto. Din supposed it was a good name and he would accept it. Let the kid keep this thing from his original parents. "Did they take him because of his powers?"

"I'm pretty sure, yeah. Yanto has a lot of memories of being tested and his blood being drawn."

Before Din could react to that news, IG-11 stuck his head in the door. "I have prepared a meal for those who are hungry."

"Yes, I'm starving," Ellie said as she hopped up, the child blinking his eyes open in surprise. "I've been working all day and only had time for one ration bar. Lead the way, IG."

And with that the cockpit was empty again, save for himself. Din shook his head in amusement, trying very hard to push down the feeling of dread building in his gut. He still did not like the droid anywhere near the child, but Ellie was with him and he was sure Venom would obliterate the droid if it tried to hurt the child. He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and focussed on flying.

Five minutes later, Ellie popped back inside the cockpit and levitated a bowl of stew with a spoon sticking out and a cup of water towards him. Din accepted them carefully.

"IG explained the helmet thing. We'll eat downstairs and I'll help Yanto, so you have the cockpit to yourself. We won't disturb you."

Din was oddly touched by her thoughtful actions. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Just come join us downstairs when you're done." And with a little wave Ellie was gone again, the cockpit door sliding closed behind her.

Din waited a few more minutes, but no more disturbances followed and he finally took off his helmet. The stew did smell good, especially for having been made by a droid and it had been almost a day since he'd last eaten. He sat back and enjoyed the meal, allowing himself some time after he was done to sit without his helmet. It always felt strange to him, too naked, but at the same time the air on his skin felt nice. Finally, after about 45 minutes he slid his helmet back on, gathered the dishes and climbed down the stairs to the lower compartment.

There he found a blanket spread out with 4 occupants on it, sitting in a circle around a whole bunch of cards turned upside down. Venom had manifested a torso with arms and a head, but was still connected to Ellie by a tendril. IG-11 turned to look at him, but Din anticipated what was coming. "I don't require anything, thank you."

"You want to join us?" Ellie asked, gesturing to the cards. "I had some craft paper left over from my murder wall of scum, so I've made a memory game. It's a lot of fun. Yanto is winning."

The child picked up a small stack of cards near his feet and held them up with a proud smile.

"Well done," Din told him, though he was unsure how the game was played. "I'm going to clean some weapons."

"The infant isn't winning, the infant is cheating," Venom grumbled.

"No, he's not," Ellie replied with a snicker. "Though he might be a little psychic."

"The rate of Yanto picking the right card as often as he does is slightly higher than average," IG-11 replied and reached out to turn over a random card. "A square. We have not seen this shape before."

The child giggled with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I told you he's cheating," Venom growled, and Ellie gave him a playful shove.

Din sat down on the bench beside the weapons cabinet, reached for a blaster, a cloth and some oil and started disassembling the weapon. He watched the game, quickly learning the simple rules, and listened to the motley group laugh and bicker. A warm feeling settled in his chest. Din didn't trust it, but whatever it was, it did feel good.


	5. Chapter 5

The Mandalorian had only ever removed his helmet for one living soul, Lena the twi'lek, the love of his life. He had kissed her and gone down on her several times and he'd fucked her in a variety of exciting positions. But his sworn enemy, the Jedi Knight Meru, an obnoxious and self-righteous busybody had taken Lena away from him because he believed the Mandalorian was keeping her against her will. This had caused Lena to miscarry their love child and when he finally caught up to them the Mandalorian was about to go medieval on the Jedi's ass.

"Ellie."

"Sshhhhh!" Ellie turned a page.

"What are you reading?"

Ellie looked up from her trashy novel, finally realizing she wasn't alone. Din was looking at her over his shoulder as he flew the spaceship, and Ellie was sure he was smirking beneath his stupid helmet.

"I was doing research," she said with as much dignity as she could muster, and then she wacked Din on the helmet with her book.

"Research. Right." Din was definitely smirking at her, she just knew it. "Maybe you should save that research for later because we're about to land."

"Oh!" Ellie leaned forward, wrapping an arm around Yanto so he wouldn't fall off her lap. She had given some of her space dollar store puzzle boxes to the kid and he'd spent the last hour in her lap playing with one. She looked out the large cockpit window and frowned. "Is that even safe?"

"We cleared it of all imperials not that long ago," Din said as he steered the ship closer and closer to the ground.

"I meant the lava." Ellie gestured wildly out the window. "At least I'm pretty sure that's all actually lava."

Din shrugged. "As long as you don't step in it you should be fine."

Ellie released a strangled groan. "Thank you for those words of wisdom, Mr Djarin."

Din whipped his head around to stare at her. "How did you know... I thought you couldn't read my mind."

"While you're wearing that helmet I can't, no. But you –"

"Took my helmet off to eat and you decided to take a look around inside my head."

Ellie stared at the emotionless mask, refusing to apologize for powers she was born with. The professor had taught her not to do that when her fellow students used to freak out when she inadvertently revealed her telepathy by mentioning things she shouldn't know. "I can't actually turn it off," she said instead. "It is both a blessing and a curse, but mostly it is a way to keep me safe. So yes, I took a quick look around and I liked what I saw."

For some reason, Din ducked his head a little at that proclamation.

"I know now your name is Din Djarin. I've been thinking of you as such. If you don't want me to call you by your name, just say so, but I'm going to have to call you something."

Din was quiet for a minute, before finally nodding his head. "You can use that name here on the ship."

"Okay. And outside the ship?"

"Mando will do." And with that Din landed the ship just outside a little community surrounded by lava fields.

They gathered in the cargo bay, Yanto in his floating pod and Ellie with a shoulder bag filled with credits. She was determined to buy some toys for the kid. "So what is the game plan, oh fearless leader?"

Din gestured towards the droid. "IG, nurse and protect."

"Understood," IG said. "Just like last time we were here."

"If it comes to that, yes, but the biggest threats to the child's life have already been eliminated. Just stay alert." He looked at Ellie next. "Keep your mind open to any and all threats, especially to the child."

Ellie nodded. "Will do."

"And stay together." Din opened the cargo bay door. Waiting for them, with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face stood Cara Dune.

Ellie did her very best not to devolve into a fangirling mess. She'd seen enough of Cara through Din's and Yanto's memories to have developed a little bit of a crush on the shock trooper. She was just so competent and hot as hell as she kicked ass and shot storm troopers. Ellie released a tiny little sigh and ignored Venom's snickering in her mind.

Din walked down the ramp and greeted Cara with a short embrace. Cara smiled at him and then nodded over his shoulder. "New friend? Isn't she a little young for you?"

Ellie sighed. "I know I look like I'm twelve without makeup but I'm actually an adult, promise." It wasn't her fault being in deep space messed with her day-night rhythm and she'd been unable to keep up with her normal morning routine.

"This is Ellie. She's the new babysitter," Din said, crossing his arms, as though daring Cara to comment on his recruitment skills.

Cara took the bait perfectly. "Her? If a storm trooper sneezes he'd blow her over, and she's supposed to keep your kid safe?"

Din's stance got cockier still. "You couldn't beat her in a fight."

Snorting with laughter, Cara shook her head. "I would be happy to fight her as long as you put your credits where your mouth is, Mando."

"Yeah, no, we only fight when we mean it," Ellie said as she walked down the ramp to join them. IG and the baby pod followed.

"We?" Cara asked, giving her a once over.

"Say hi, Venom." At once, Venom emerged from her chest in all his toothy glory and growled, "Hi, Venom."

Cara jumped back. "What the fuck! What is that?"

"That is Venom the klyntar," Din said. "I'd never heard of them but trust me, he had me on my ass in less than a second."

Cara took a careful step closer and leaned down a little to take a better look. "This is a klyntar? I've heard of them but have never seen one. They're legendary in the fighting rings. The story goes that one of them in the arena on Cantonica dismantled three rancors in five minutes." She glanced up and smiled at Ellie. "Girl, you could make a killing with this thing in the fighting circuit."

Feeling oddly flattered, Ellie shrugged as her cheeks heated. "Thanks for the tip, but we're good." Venom withdrew back inside her with some grumbled comments that he wouldn't mind fighting for money. Or for free, he wasn't picky.

"Fair enough." Cara looked at Din and smacked him on the shoulder, laughing. "You found an actual klyntar to keep your kid safe. Epic." Then her face sobered and she patted Din on his shoulder in a more comforting gesture. "And you might just need him. Moff Gideon got away."

"What?" Din growled, and Ellie could hardly believe the amount of hatred in his voice.

Cara nodded in agreement. "We went back to the crashed Tie fighter to look for information. The hull had been cut open from the inside and there was no body. The jawas already there had seen him get out and walk away."

"Fuck." Din shook his head. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Ellie had no clue who Moff Gideon was, but one quick look in Cara's mind told her all she needed to know. "I can make another murder wall of scum if you want to hunt him. I have plenty of paper left over. I got a huge pack of it on sale."

"That might not be a bad idea." Din poked her in the side of her head with a finger. "And I want you to keep an ear open for any mention of him."

"Don't worry, I will," Ellie said with a grim smile. "I've seen what he did. He's on top of our shit list now."

"Good." And with that Din walked towards the little town, the rest of them following along.

Ellie tried not to act like a tourist too much, but she was well aware that she was now on an alien planet, surrounded by alien people and it was all a little exciting. The shithole planet where they had woken up lost in space had also been an alien world, of course, but after almost a year of living there it had all felt rather familiar and routine. She kept her mind open and cast her senses about to look for any threats or mentions of Moff Gideon, and while she did hear some thoughts pertaining to imperials, they had to do with people remembering the violent confrontation that had taken place there several weeks earlier. There was no one she found to have sympathetic feelings towards the old empire.

Din led them inside a bar that looked to be going through some major renovations. Ellie had seen the fire that had gone through there in Yanto's mind and she was impressed they had fixed it up as much as they had already.

"Mando!" Greef Karga greeted them with open arms and gestured them into a booth. Ellie immediately started rifling through his thoughts. He was an opportunist, pragmatic to a fault, but not what she would call a bad man. He genuinely liked Yanto and had some real respect and admiration for Din. He also had a little bit of a crush on Cara, which was hilarious. Then again, Ellie couldn't really blame him. But most importantly, he had no plans for betraying Din and Yanto, just an eagerness to get Din working for him again in the business. Well, Ellie supposed he was in luck.

"And how is that magic hand?" Greef asked with a smile and a wave at the kid, and Yanto waved cheerfully back. "So good to see you again, Mando. Please tell me you're here for work because I've got a very nice puck for you." He slid a black disc across the table which Din caught. "And I don't think we've met before," Greef said as he looked Ellie over with a critical eye.

"I'm Ellie, the babysitter." She smiled brightly at him.

"Ah." And with that, Greef dismissed her, his thoughts going in the direction of not blaming Din for wanting to keep a cute piece of tail around that could watch his kid and take care of other needs.

Ellie rolled her eyes and beside her Cara coughed to hide a snicker. They glanced at each other and shared a very knowing look. It was rather amusing to be underestimated just because of looks and gender.

"The target is in Naboo?" Din asked, looking at the image of a snooty twenty-something guy hovering over the puck.

"A bail jumper, but very high up. The pay is twenty thousand but the target has to be brought in alive."

"Hm." Din shut the puck off. "I'll take it but I'll need a down payment for fuel."

"Sure, sure." Greef slid a bag across the table. "That will get you there and back."

Ellie watched quietly, only now realizing Din might be strapped for cash. She had plenty and she vowed to bring it up once they were back on the ship. No need to broadcast such things in public.

Din got up, accepted a pat on the shoulder from Greef and a quick embrace from Cara, and then he exited the bar, Ellie, IG-11 and Yanto in his pod following. Once they entered a small bazaar, Din stopped and turned to look at them.

"I want to check up on a friend. Will you two be okay with the child for a while?"

"Sure. I wanted to buy him some toys anyway," Ellie said. "I'm pretty sure I'll find something in one of those little junk shops."

"And if we are travelling to Naboo, it might be wise to purchase some more food for you," IG added.

Din reached for the bag of credits Greef had just given him, but Ellie grabbed his arm to stop him. "I've got this. Don't worry. Go visit your friend." With a nod, Din turned on his feet and disappeared down an alley.

Yanto made a small, distressed sound as he stared after him. Ellie stroked him across his fuzzy little head. " Don't worry, little bean. He'll be back before you know it. Let's get you some toys." That caught the child's attention and he stared up at Ellie with a hopeful smile.

They got some food first. Ellie let IG-11 do most of the shopping since the droid had so far prepared them some excellent meals. She added some interesting fruits to his selection of root vegetables and dried meats. Once they had a small crate filled with food they entered a small junk shop. In the back a jawa looked around a display.

"I've taken a Jawaese language course, but I've never had the chance to use it," Ellie whispered to IG.

"Addressing people in their native tongue usually has positive effects on trade negotiations," IG replied.

Ellie cleared her throat. i"Greetings and salutations, kind jawa merchant. I am here to inspect your beautiful wares."/i

The jawa waved a fist at them. i"Either buy something or fuck off."/i

"I believe that went very well," IG said.

Ellie wanted to reply but Yanto had spotted something on a crowded shelf and was reaching out to get it.

"What did you see, little bean?" Ellie followed his gaze and then she spotted it. "Oh, it's a puzzle box." She grabbed it off the shelf and blew at it to get some of the dust of. It was old, but very well made from different kinds of metal, about the size of a Rubik's cube. Yanto made an impatient sound and waved his little hand.

"We'll get it, don't worry, but I want to check it out first to make sure it won't accidentally open up a portal to the Hellraiser demon dimension or something."

"You believe this item to be a threat to the child?" IG asked, gently pushing the pod away from the mystery puzzle box. Yanto let out a pitiful whine.

"Nah, but until we're sure what it is, it's best to be careful."

"Very wise. I will analyse the item once we are back on the ship." IG gestured at a different pile of junk. "I see a few items that can function as spare parts for me. Would it be acceptable to purchase these?"

"Yes, of course, get whatever you want."

Ellie wandered around the shop and selected a beaten up toy droid and a holographic device with lots of buttons that promised sights and sounds of animals from across the galaxy. Neither item worked, but IG assured her he could fix them. Venom even got in on the fun of browsing junk and he pointed out a little pile of language chips that would fit her cheap little caster.

The Jawa took one look at their pile of junk and said, i"Twenty credits."/i

Ellie snorted, and wanted to say that the junk wasn't worth that much. What she actually said was, i"Your treasures are beyond compare. Name any price."/i

i"Thirty credits!"/i The Jawa squeaked with laughter, slapping his own thigh in obvious mirth.

"What? No! Crap. Oh my god, fine." Ellie quickly handed over thirty credits and hurried out of the store. "Not one word," she told IG.

IG stayed quiet for about ten seconds. "I was only going to say that it was a very admirable effort."

They found Din waiting for them in the little town square. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Ellie sighed. "Except I just got swindled by a jawa."

Din let out a very undignified snort. "Haven't we all."

They made their way back to the ship without incident and they stayed in the cargo hold to inspect and store their purchases. IG examined the puzzle box, Din rifled through the spare parts IG had selected and Ellie took out her little caster to check if the language chips worked. She slid the first one inside the caster and a voice filled the ship.

"Magnus recordings is proud to present folk music from the Hossian system recorded on location!" And what followed could only be described as space polka.

"It's music," Ellie said. "Awesome." Yanto giggled and hopped in place, and Ellie picked him up and swung him around. "Let's dance, little man." Yanto released a shriek of laughter as Ellie tried to remember how to do the chicken dance.

Din sat on the bench, watching them, elbows on his knees and shaking his head.

"I'm unsure of what is happening right now," IG said.

"It's called having fun," Ellie shouted over the music.

"This item appears to be safe for the child." IG sat the puzzle box on the floor and picked up the toy droid.

Yanto wriggled in Ellie's arms and she put him down so he could play with his new toy. Ellie reached out and grabbed one of Din's gloved hands. "Come on, live a little."

"I don't dance," Din said, but he did allow Ellie to pull him up from the bench.

"Well, neither do I but that doesn't mean we can't have fun," Ellie said with a giggle. She coaxed Din in the slightest of dance moves as he wrapped his arms around her. Ellie smiled up at his helmet and was surprised at the warm sensation in her stomach. For a moment she thought it was Venom moving around, but with a blush she realized this wasn't her alien BFF, this was something else entirely. Din suddenly stopped moving and stared over her shoulder. Ellie turned around in his arms to see what he was looking at.

Yanto stood in front of his new puzzle box, both hands raised as pieces of the puzzle box floated in mid-air.

Ellie reached over and turned off the space polka. "Good job, little bean."

Before anyone could say more a hologram appeared above the puzzle box of a middle-aged bearded man in the world's dullest Tibetan monk outfit. The image spoke.

"This is Master Obi Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both the Jedi order and the republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the empire rising to take their place. This is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi. Trust in the force."


	6. Chapter 6

Eddie Brock was not having a very good year.

Meeting Venom had been the best thing that ever happened to him, and the six months that followed had been the best time of his life. Then one day, as he and Venom had been bickering over qwhich kind of pancakes to make for breakfast, three super powered people had shown up on his doorstep and everything had gone to hell.

During the chase across the city, Eddie had felt on top of the world, certain that nothing could bring Venom down. Indeed, the two guys could barely keep up and nothing they did put so much as a dent in them. Then a girl had dropped out of the sky on top of their heads, and the world turned first a fiery orange before it all faded to black.

Eddie woke up in the hospital, handcuffed to the bed.

Venom was gone. Dissolved as though he had never been there at all.

Dan fussed over him and his six broken bones, while Annie, bless her, took on his legal defence. And he needed a very good legal defence because the super powered people, known as the X-men, had given their evidence of his and Venom's night-time activities to the police and he was now looking at 25 to life for manslaughter if not murder.

Annie did her best to make it all go away, pointing out that the evidence was all circumstantial and they had no proof that Eddie had ever housed an actual man-eating alien monster, and it might have worked, too, if Tony fucking Stark's legal team hadn't gotten involved.

Apparently the leader of the X-men, Charles Xavier, a rich white guy, was best buddies with Tony Stark, also a rich white guy. Was anyone even surprised by this, because Eddie sure wasn't.

Tony Stark's legal team dumped so much legal crap on their case that poor Annie's head was just about spinning on her shoulders and Eddie wouldn't have been surprised if she'd started speaking in tongues. In the end, Annie had no choice but to advice him to accept the plea deal the DA had approved. It basically consisted of indentured servitude to the Avengers for the next 20 fucking years, plus information.

Up until that point, Eddie had pleaded the fifth and had neither confirmed or denied a thing. But now, to stay out of actual prison, he had to come clean.

Once he met up with representatives of both the X-men and the Avengers did he understand why. The girl, with Venom in tow, had been abducted by aliens. It was such a ludicrous thing that Eddie had snorted with laughter, sure it was some kind of joke. That was until the cranky guy with the foot-long blades coming out of his knuckles had almost taken his head off, and then he understood that it wasn't a joke at all.

Eddie had been relieved to hear that Venom was still alive. Up until that point he'd been sure Venom had burned up in whatever that explosion had been, but now at least he knew Venom was still out there, abducted together with a barely legal girl with both telepathic and explosive powers. That meant that Venom now occupied a very powerful host, which only upped their chances of survival. He now also understood their anger with him, and their determination to get him to talk. They wanted their friend back. They were in luck, because Eddie wanted the same thing.

He missed Venom like he missed a best friend, a lover, and all of his limbs. He had never felt so alone in his life before.

So Eddie did the right thing and told them all he knew, earning both judgement and gratitude.

Right around this time, about two months since Venom had disappeared, new headless corpses started showing up. Many eyes turned towards him, but Eddie denied any involvement and thankfully Charles Xavier backed him up.

What they found was something far worse than Venom had ever been. In fact, during this whole fiasco a lot of people started realizing that he and Venom had actually been pretty good guys all things considered.

If anyone had ever wondered what would happen if a symbiote teamed up with an actual serial killer, now they had the answer. Carnage was a credit to his name and it took the combined might of the Avengers and the X-men, and Eddie's expertise, to bring Carnage down.

Even with the decibel bombs Stark had developed after hearing Eddie talk it had been a bloodbath. Captain America had spent five days in the hospital, healing factor and all.

Afterwards, Stark had slapped him on the back with a smile. "You're not so bad, Brock. I'm promoting you to Avengers Alien Liaison." Many more had smiled at him and appreciated his contributions, and yeah, that hadn't been the worst feeling in the world, to be part of something bigger that helped to protect others.

The rest of the year had been reasonably quiet. He lived in a small apartment on the Avengers compound, got paid a fairly generous salary and got to use his investigative skills to snoop through old SHIELD files and categorize any and all previous alien contact. He made friends with some of his colleagues and some of the Avengers (Rhodes had a great sense of humour and Romanoff could drink anyone under the table), and even Tony Stark was starting to grow on him. He went out on a few dates, with Lara from legal and with Ben from security, and he even got laid. Go him.

There was some upheaval about the Accords, which resulted in Captain America and some of his pals disappearing off the radar, but that all had surprisingly little effect on Eddie's day to day life.

But there were no developments when it came to getting Ellie and Venom back. The only one who could inform them about people-abducting aliens was Thor and he hadn't been heard from for almost a year. Earth itself simply lacked the technology to search the whole of space for one missing girl and her alien tagalong. Even Stark had to admit that much, no matter his vow to invent something that would get the job done.

That was until Stark stuck his head inside Eddie's office. "Brock, you're up. We've got aliens incoming. Lots of them."

Eddie looked up from his desk in utter surprise. "We've got what now?"

Thor had returned, with Dr Banner and his not so evil brother Loki in tow, plus a few hundred people who were technically aliens all needing homes. The rock guy, he was definitely an alien, but the rest were really just people in need of help. The first few weeks, Eddie got very little sleep as he took care of the logistics of housing and feeding and educating this much of a crowd, as Stark took care of the legal and political side of this whole mess.

He quickly learned that Thor and his blunt ways worked on his nerves, so he made Loki the official contact between himself and New Asgard. He much preferred Loki's sharp tongue and sharper mind over Thor's blundering enthusiasm.

A few weeks after Thor's arrival some new friends of his who had helped them during their journey to earth showed up in a spaceship which they parked on the lawn. A ragtag group of aliens got out.

Eddie sighed. Since they were aliens they were his responsibility. He quickly learned that dealing with Thor and his people had been a walk in the park compared to this bunch.

There was a talking raccoon who claimed not to be a raccoon at all, a talking tree who only knew three words, a girl with antennae and a grey skinned guy who had trouble understanding anything at all, an aggressive green-skinned woman and an even more aggressive blue-skinned woman, and their leader who believed himself to be god's gift to everyone.

Eddie had never been so grateful when Loki showed up on his doorstep that evening with two bottles of wine. Loki could apparently sympathize with his plight, having had to deal with these so called Guardians of the Galaxy mid-space flight. They finished off the first bottle amidst gossip and complaints about that crazy bunch of aliens and it was during the second bottle that the conversation took a more personal turn.

"I miss him so fucking much," Eddie confessed in a whisper. He'd never voiced that to anyone before. In fact, he was sure most people believed him to be grateful to be rid of Venom.

"The klyntar?" Loki sipped his wine as he leaned back in the couch beside Eddie.

"Yeah, Venom. It's like missing a part of myself. It's been almost a year now and we were only together for about 6 months, but it still fucking hurts."

"You love him. You were lovers, weren't you?" Loki spoke calmly, no judgement in his voice.

"Yeah." Eddie ducked his head. "I know it's weird but to us it felt like the most natural thing in the world."

"That is how all good relationships should feel, I believe." Loki put his hand on Eddie's thigh and ran his long fingers up and down Eddie's jeans.

Oh. iOh./i

When Loki leaned over to kiss him, Eddie met him halfway. And when he woke up the next morning with a pale arm wrapped around him he felt a little lighter.

"Heard you bagged the God of Mischief," Stark told him in the hallway later that morning. "Nice."

Eddie gaped at him. "How did you even... are you spying on me?"

Stark ignored him completely. "Listen, now that we have some actual aliens to question, set up a meeting with Xavier and his peeps. See if we can't finally get that rescue underway."

"Oh. Yeah. Good idea." Eddie took out his phone. "But really, Stark, stop spying on me."

"Stop fucking gods and I might," Stark said as he walked backwards down the hallway. "I'm a married man, Brock. I'm just living vicariously through you." Stark made two finger guns at him and disappeared around the corner.

Eddie sighed and dialled Xavier.

And that is how he found himself sitting between Loki and Stark in the biggest conference room in the compound, surrounded by Avengers and mutants and aliens.

"Describe the vessel again," Nebula said with a look of concentration on her face. "Especially the size."

Colossus did so, even going so far as to draw what he could on a piece of paper.

Nebula inhaled a deep breath. "That looks like a ship of the Soma."

That caused some disturbance amongst the spacefaring amidst them.

"Yeah, they're screwed," Rocket the not-raccoon announced.

"Maybe explain for those of us not familiar with them?" Storm said in a firm voice.

"The Soma people have technology that allows them to travel between galaxies," Gamora explained carefully. "They're known for catching and selling beasts and people."

"Like a klyntar," Loki said.

Gamora nodded. "Exactly. We think of them as parasites but I've heard stories of them being used in fighting rings in other galaxies."

"Not that this isn't fascinating and all, but how do we track them and how do we get the girl back?" Stark asked.

"We don't," Quill said. That earned a very loud round of protests.

"Haven't you been listening," Rocket snarled as he leaned forward in his seat. "We don't have the technology to track her to whatever galaxy they've taken her and we don't have the technology to travel between galaxies."

"We could use a spell to track her," Dr Strange said, and Loki nodded in agreement.

"That's nice," Rocket said with a shake of his head. "Then you'll know exactly from where you cannot retrieve her."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Xavier said. "There are other ways to travel huge distances than technology." He gave Loki a very pointed look.

Loki's returning look was one of deep betrayal. "Don't do this."

"One of my pupils has been lost. You will find, Mr Odinsson, that there is very little I wouldn't do to see to her safe return. I appreciate why you did what you did and why you want to keep it a secret, but an innocent girl's life is on the line."

Thor stared at his brother with narrowed eyes. "Loki, what did you do?"

Loki sighed, cast a brief glance at Eddie, and raised both hands in the air. He made a complicated series of gestures and plucked a glowing, blue cube out of thin air.

"Loki!" Thor bellowed.

Loki turned towards his brother with a snarl. "What would you have me do, brother? Leave it floating in space for the titan to find? This way, as long as none knew, it would be safe."

Quill leaned forward to get a better look. "Is that...?"

"The tesseract," Stark said with a gleam in his eyes, just as Vision replied, "The space stone."

"Oh yeah," Rocket snarled with a sharp grin. "Now we're in business."


	7. Chapter 7

Din was stunned. He stood, still with Ellie in his arms, staring at the hologram of a Jedi master. The same people he was supposed to seek out for the child, and here they had found a major clue in some random little junk shop on Nevarro.

"Wow," Ellie said as she looked up at him with a smile. "I wonder if this puzzle is part of some larger roleplaying game."

"What?" Din stared at her, utterly confused by what she had just said.

"The Jedi character." Ellie waved at the puzzle box. "It's a different one from the book, but the storylines might be connected."

"Book?" He grabbed her shoulders and squeezed until Ellie frowned. "What book?"

"That trashy novel I was reading earlier." Ellie stepped out from under his grip and started rummaging through one of her crates. "This one." She held up 'The Mandalorian's Revenge'. Din snatched it from her hand. "There's also this one," she added, waving 'The Jedi's temptation' in his face. "I haven't read this one yet but it's got a Jedi, obviously."

On very rare occasions Din regretted wearing a helmet. This was one such occasion because Din wanted desperately to rub his hands across his face in sheer frustration and disbelief. He now remembered the child even handing him that Jedi book back in Ellie's room. But he'd been so distracted by the whole situation that he hadn't really noticed the title. But his recent trip back to the covert had brought back the armourer's message. The armourer herself was long gone, and with her all her tools so Din was sure she had made it out safely. But standing in front of the cold furnace her words from weeks ago had come back in full force.

Find the child's own kind, whoever that may be.

Din had thought perhaps Ellie was a Jedi, but was hiding that fact for personal reasons. He'd hoped she'd be able to train the child while still leaving the child in his care. But her reaction just now disproved that theory.

"Din." Ellie's soft voice snapped him out of his musings.

Ellie had a hand on his chest, staring at him with wide eyes, Venom curled protectively around her torso with his head resting on her shoulder, unreadable, white eyes observing him quietly.

"Din, you seem very upset. Please tell us what's going on," Ellie whispered, her hand stroking across his armour soothingly.

Din grabbed Ellie's hand with his gloved one and gave it a gentle squeeze before releasing it and stepping back.

"My Mandalorian... mentor told me to look for the child's people and that they were named Jedi. I have never heard of them before."

Ellie cracked a smile. "And now you find them in a trashy romance novel." She shook her head in obvious amusement. "I didn't even think they were real. They seemed a little fantastical even for me."

Din gestured at the child, who was watching them while chewing on a corner of the puzzle box. "He can stop a mudhorn in its tracks, heal a fatal wound and reverse a fire storm. And I wouldn't believe that if I hadn't seen it. And even having seen it, I still have trouble believing sometimes."

Turning the Jedi book over in her hands, Ellie gave a decisive nod. "So we do research. We find out everything we can about the Jedi, starting with these."

And that is how Din found himself sitting in the cockpit, the ship on course to Naboo, with the child playing with his puzzle box in his lap and with 'The Mandalorian's Revenge' in his hand.

The writing was atrocious and the plot absurd, but there was a wealth of information on Jedi to be found, if any of it was even true.

Beside him, Ellie sipped a cup of tea while wading through 'The Jedi's Temptation'. At one point she looked up at him with a grimace. "I'm not sure these Jedi are very nice people. According to this they kidnap babies."

Din started liking these Jedi less and less the more he read. "How is it possible," he said, closing the book after he was done with it. "That I, or most people I know, have no knowledge of these Jedi and yet here they are described in a romance novel of all things."

"That's a good question," Ellie said, putting her book aside and sipping more tea. IG-11 seemed delighted that at least someone on board appreciated his efforts and kept her well supplied in food and drinks. "These books are what, fifty or sixty years old. Sold in a second hand shop on a shithole planet at the edge of the outer rim."

"But that's not where they are originally from," Din pointed out, turning the book over in his hand. On the back it said 'Mentalia Publishing House – Coruscant'.

Ellie leaned over to look at the writing. "Coruscant. That is where the Jedi temple is. Or was. In the last 50-ish years someone has gone through a lot of trouble to erase any public knowledge of these people and their baby snatching cult."

"The empire. It has to be," Din said, finally beginning to see the bigger picture. "These Jedi were a serious threat, being guardians of the republic."

"Yep. So they got rid of them permanently and buried any information on them. Except they missed a few smutty books in the outer rim and a puzzle box in a jawa junk shop." Ellie stood up and stretched her arms over her head. Din noticed her shirt riding up, revealing a strip of pale, soft skin. He had a hard time looking away and unwittingly his brain latched onto the idea of what would have happened if Ellie had actually been a prostitute and what her naked skin would have felt like under his hands and how her body would have writhed when he slid inside her –

Ellie rapped her knuckles on his helmet. "Anybody home?"

Din shook his head and was glad she couldn't see the blush on his cheeks or read his thoughts. "Sorry, what?"

"As I was saying, before you zoned out, let's make a wall. Not a murder wall, but an info wall. It always helps me to process new information."

"Sure." Din shrugged, picked the child up in his arms and followed Ellie down in the cargo hold.

Ellie got down some of her crates, spread out a blanket and motioned for him to sit down beside her, which he did. She spread out several sheets of paper and opened a box filled with colourful markers and stickers of all kinds. The child toddled over and was quickly given his own sheet of paper, a handful of markers and a sheet of small stickers of droids, which seemed to delight him. He settled down in between them and got to work creating art with wobbly strokes of a red marker.

"Here, you write down what you know about this asshole." Ellie handed him a sheet of paper that had 'Moff Gideon' written at the top in thick black letters. She grabbed another sheet, wrote 'Jedi' at the top and started listing what they had learned.

"I thought you were a Jedi," Din said as he wrote down all he knew about the child's greatest enemy.

"Me?" Ellie said with a smile as she glanced at him. "Nah, I'm something else. You wanna hear my sob story?"

"Yes," Din said seriously. He was truly curious about his new companion.

"Okay, so Venom and me are not from this galaxy. The Soma kidnapped us from the Drudia galaxy."

That confirmed one suspicion he'd had. She really was a very long way from home.

"My home planet, named earth, is pretty primitive in some ways. It has no space travel like you have here. We've only ever visited our own moon and sent some unmanned vessels to nearby planets." Ellie handed the child her own marker when he reached his little hand out for it. "It's all human inhabitants and a very small percentage of them is born with a genetic mutation which gives them extraordinary powers. We're called mutants."

Din had never heard of such a thing before. "Powers like telepathy."

"Yeah," Ellie said and sat up and looked at him in surprise. "Oh. I've never told you. Telepathy isn't my primary mutation. It's my secondary mutation. Most mutants only have one."

"So what is your primary mutation?"

Ellie looked at him with a crooked grin. "I'm a walking, talking bomb."

Din was stunned. "What?"

"Yeah, it's pretty unbelievable, but I can blow shit up. The biggest ever was an entire shipyard during one of Wade's adventures, but releasing that much power knocked me out cold for a minute. It's pretty cool, but it also makes me very attractive to some very bad people." The smile slid of her face and her shoulders hunched.

"What happened?" Din asked softly. He could only imagine what someone like her could be made to do in the wrong hands.

"Shit happened," Ellie said with snarl, and then released a big sigh.

"You don't have to say anything if it is too painful," Din offered. The last thing he wanted was for her to suffer on his behalf.

"Nah, it's actually healthy to talk about it, or so I'm told," she said and released a bitter laugh. "So here we go. Obligatory sob story coming right up.

"I was born and raised in one of the bigger cities of my world, New York. My mom died from cancer when I was a kid and my dad didn't handle it very well. He buried himself in alcohol and took his frustrations and anger out on me and my little brother." She pantomimed punching someone repeatedly. "I tried to keep my little brother out of it as much as I could."

The child turned to look up at her and put his hand on her knee.

Ellie smiled down at him and ran a thumb over his little fingers. "His name was Patrick. We called him Paddy. He was three years younger than me. Your mutation manifests during puberty and when I was fourteen I started hearing voices." She glanced at Din with a grin. "I thought I was going nuts at first."

"That must have been very strange, to hear people's thoughts," Din said. He found it hard to imagine what that must be like.

"Oh yeah, especially because most people have very boring surface thoughts. Bills to pay, what to cook for dinner, anxiety about school or work, which celebrity they'd like to fuck. It took me a while to even realize I was hearing other people's thoughts. It was Paddy that clued me in. He was obsessed with these anime stories and would constantly be analysing characters in his head and stuff. Whenever he would be near me I would hear that and I knew he was obsessed with those stories so I finally realized they were his thoughts."

Ellie fell quiet for a while, staring down at nothing in particular until she inhaled a deep, shuddering breath. "One day I came home and my dad was laying into Paddy." Ellie bent her head and buried her face in her hand. "He was on the floor and my dad kicked him and I could hear Paddy thinking that he wanted my dad to keep kicking him so he wouldn't go after me because he'd already beaten me just the day before."

The child edged closer to Ellie and released a distressed sound.

"And I just stood there like a schmuck. Until my dad kicked Paddy in the head and then..." Ellie snapped her fingers. "His mind just went poof and it was gone." She rubbed her hand across her eyes furiously. "I felt him die, heard my little brother's thoughts just disappear forever, and this thing in me just swelled and swelled until it burst out of me. I blew up the entire apartment, killed my dad and woke up in the hospital."

"Oh Ellie," Din said, and he would have said more but Ellie waved him off.

"Child Protective Services told me it was a gas explosion, but I knew better. The next day they came to take me to my aunt's and I was so scared that people would find out I had these strange, dangerous powers that I didn't pay attention to their thoughts and I didn't realize they weren't CPS until I was sitting in their car and they stuck a needle in my neck, knocking me out."

"Who were they?" Din asked, filled with the desire to travel to her galaxy, however impossible that was just to hunt these people down.

"Hydra. They're a terrorist organization. Fascist murdering control freaks, so kinda like the empire, but they were never in control like the empire was. Hydra worked from the shadows and they had spies everywhere to alert them to potential assets with useful powers. I woke up inside this huge, concrete room, like a bomb shelter. The floor was electrified and they zapped me until they triggered another explosion. That took out the door and I ran for it but they darted me before I got very far."

"But you got out," Din said, worried for her even though she was sitting right beside him healthy and whole.

Ellie smiled and nodded. "They kept me drugged to the gills, scared I would blow them all up, as they ran experiments and tried to decide how to best control me. I couldn't move my body but thanks to my telepathy my brain wasn't so easily subdued and I heard their thoughts and could see through their eyes. It was terrifying."

"You were trapped," Din concluded.

"Yeah, and I didn't have any control of my telepathy yet so I couldn't do anything but lay there and listen to their plans on how they planned to enslave me forever. It involved electricity and a chair, but they had to fine-tune the process because if used on people without healing factors, like me, it would turn their brains to mush.

"That was my future, at least until the cavalry arrived." Ellie's smile became a little brighter. "Mutants, who called themselves the X-men. Their leader Professor Xavier, the most powerful telepath in the world had tracked me down. It was one of the greatest moments of my life, when Wolverine and Cyclops came bursting into the room and Colossus carried me out in his arms and all the while the professor was whispering in my mind explaining who they were and where they were taking me."

Ellie gave him a knowing look. "And I knew then that I was safe and that I would be okay, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." That was exactly how he had felt in the arms of the Mandalorian who had carried him away after his parents were murdered.

"The professor runs a school for mutants, so I got to stay there and get an education and learn how to control my powers. It was my explosive powers that needed immediate training because they were so dangerous. Wolverine and Colossus got that job because they are pretty indestructible. Wolverine has this healing factor that rivals Venom's and Colossus has metal skin. And the professor helped me with my telepathy."

Ellie snorted and shook her head. "I'm not even a very powerful telepath. I've got nothing on the professor, who has an incredible range, or even Jean, one of our teachers. She's way more powerful than me with her mind. Even so, my telepathy has saved our bacon this past year. It's a lot more useful than blowing shit up when lost in space."

"And how did you meet Venom?" Din asked because he had wondered how that unlikely friendship had happened.

"Funny story," Ellie said just as Venom popped his head out of her thigh and said, "She hunted us."

"You were enemies?" Din asked, surprised. The child handed Venom a blue marker, which Venom accepted with a small tendril.

"Nah," Ellie said with a laugh. "Enemies is a big word."

"She and two males did not like that we hunted bad people, so they came to stop us." Venom shifted so he could look up at her. "Hypocrite."

Ellie threw her head back and laughed. "I guess I am one now," she said while patting Venom on his head. To Din she added, "The X-men, which I had officially joined at that point, investigate potential mutant crimes. And we thought these strange murders might have been committed by a mutant. Turned out it was Eddie Brock, a reporter, and his pet alien. During the chase I blew them up and Venom ended up in me and suddenly we were beamed up into the sky and we woke up on planet Shithole in a cage. They couldn't have beamed you up five minutes earlier, then I wouldn't have been in this mess."

"No, I am glad it was you that got taken," Venom said, and accepted another marker and a sheet of paper from the child.

"Wow," Ellie said with a frown. " You're happy that I –"

"Eddie would not have survived," Venom told her. "It was your powers that got us out of the cage. Eddie has no such powers. He would not have lived."

Ellie looked stunned for a second. "Huh. You're right. They would have sold you and separated you, and shipped Eddie off as a slave to the spice mines and you'd have ended up in the fighting rings with whatever host they wanted."

"Yes. You were a much better option to be kidnapped with," Venom said and accepted a pat on his jaw from the child who showed off his drawing. "And I am glad Eddie is still alive and safe on earth."

Din watched as Ellie admired the child's drawing and urged Venom to create a drawing of his own. This girl, young as she was, was a warrior. A fierce protector of children because she had suffered the loss of her brother for which she probably at least partially blamed herself.

Din's admiration for this young woman grew in leaps and bounds. She had turned an enemy into an ally when they were both lost, and instead of using her significant powers to seek advancements for herself she had lived for a year in a small room while she went out day after day to protect the most vulnerable who had no one to look out for them before.

Watching her fuss over the child and bicker with Venom, Din's chest glowed and his stomach turned itself into a knot. For the first time in his life he felt the genuine desire to take off his helmet and kiss another person. It simultaneously excited and terrified him.

And he had no idea what to do with any of these new feelings.


	8. Chapter 8

Selecting who got to go on the rescue mission through a portal into another galaxy was an exercise in extreme frustration.

Everybody and their friendly neighbourhood Spider-man and their pet raccoon signed up for the mission. It took many hours of talking, shouting, one broken window and even a few tears (Spider-man didn't take the news that all travellers had to be over 18 very well), but finally they had a team selected.

Tony Stark, because of his knowledge of technology and because his Iron Man suit was basically a one man army and they had no idea what kind of trouble they might run into. Also, because Stark jokingly but not really mentioned withdrawing funding if he didn't get to go into actual outer space, Rhodey.

Loki, because they needed someone with magic to track Ellie, and Dr Strange couldn't leave earth for an unknown amount of time. Thor insisted he come, too, but he was voted down because Loki could be a fighter, and they didn't need more muscles. This resulted in the aforementioned broken window.

Dr Jean Grey, because having a telepath and a medical doctor was a real boon for the mission.

Rocket, because they needed a pilot and he could fly anything. Also, because Quill didn't volunteer and refused to let them use his spaceship ("I recently lost one ship, I don't need to lose another one so just build your own, Stark, you have more money than I do!").

Nebula, because of her knowledge of space and because she was one of the most terrifying and efficient fighters they had ever met. Stark took great delight in upgrading parts of her to give her even more of an edge. Surprisingly, Nebula let him.

Wolverine, because...well, frankly because nobody had the balls to tell him he couldn't go. Oh yeah, and he was a good fighter.

And finally, Eddie Brock. The one most surprised by this was Eddie himself, seeing as he hadn't even volunteered. He was just a squishy human, he had no business rescuing anyone.

"But you're our Venom whisperer," Stark said when Eddie brought up his reluctance to go. "Chances are the blob is still attached to little miss dynamite and he might not be happy to see us."

Wolverine stared him down. "It's your fucking fault Ellie got lost, Brock, so shut up and man up."

Eddie wasn't sure how this was his fault as he sure as fuck hadn't invited the aliens over to come abduct anyone, but he wasn't crazy enough to argue with a pissed off Wolverine. And as for what Stark said, about Venom still being with Ellie, Eddie had many thoughts about that.

On the one hand, Eddie desperately hoped Venom was still with Ellie because he was well aware that this was a rescue mission for Ellie. If Venom wasn't with her they weren't going to look for him and he'd be lost to Eddie forever.

On the other hand, if Venom had spent a year living with Ellie there was a very good chance those two had developed a close relationship. So close, in fact, that Venom probably wouldn't even want to get back with him. Eddie had nightmares about that scenario, about finally seeing Venom again and being ignored and shunned and ridiculed.

"But Eddie, why would I want to be with a loser like you when I have this hot little girl with actual superpowers?"

Eddie woke up bathing in sweat and gasping for breath, his cheeks wet, more than once.

On top of Eddie's growing anxiety about his relationship status with Venom, Loki was acting weird ever since the meeting in which he had revealed the tesseract.

Eddie sighed and ran his hands across his face. "It's okay if you just want it to be a one night stand, or we could just be fuck buddies. Whatever."

Loki, sitting stiffly on the couch in Eddie's living room, looked at him and raised a single eyebrow.

"You're acting weird," Eddie told him. He was too exhausted by all the recent developments to be anything but blunt.

"I'm acting weird?" Loki asked with a little gasp of offense. "I am not. You are the one that is acting strange."

"Me?" Eddie stared at him in disbelief.

"Yes, you." Loki shifted on the couch to get a better look at him. "Why aren't you mad?"

"About what? Being forced to go on a rescue mission into outer space? Because yeah, I'm not happy about that, trust me."

Loki shook his head. "No. About me having the tool to bring your lover back all along but never disclosing it."

Eddie blinked and stared at the opposite wall for a moment. "I honestly hadn't thought about that," he finally said. "You kept it a secret to keep it out of enemy hands, right?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm not mad. I'm really not," Eddie said and put his hand on Loki's forearm in emphasis as Loki gave him a look of disbelief. "And I liked where this thing between us was going, you know?"

Loki stared down at the hand on his arm. He placed his other hand on top of it. "As did I. But what kind of relationship could we have when we are going to bring your old lover back?"

Eddie hadn't really wanted to consider this before, because he really liked Loki. A lot. But he wanted Venom back so much that he was actually going to help rescue him in another galaxy. "Look, I want to see where this thing between us is going," he said, trying to put his chaotic thoughts into some semblance of rational conversation. "There is a chance Venom won't be found, and even if we do find him there is a good chance he won't want to get back with me."

"How so?" Loki asked, seemingly offended on his behalf.

Eddie released a snort and gave Loki a look while he gestured at his own body. "Seriously? Would you want this middle-aged sack of meat when you could have some hot young thing with superpowers?"

Loki's expression was one of great confusion, as though he'd never heard such an absurd thing before. "Yes, Eddie, I very much prefer you."

"But why?" Eddie asked in stunned disbelief. "I'm just...nobody. A loser."

"You are like me in some ways," Loki said, and Eddie wondered if Loki meant their similar sentences. The Accords Council had given Loki a similar deal as they'd given Eddie, for Loki's involuntary part in the invasion of New York. Loki had no choice but to be an Avenger if he wanted to stay on earth.

"You were beaten down, lost things you love and yet you got back up again and found new strength to carry on." Loki placed his hand on Eddie's thigh and gave it an affectionate squeeze. "You have great strength, Eddie Brock. Others may not notice it, surrounded by brainless brutes as we are, but I do."

Eddie had to swallow against a sudden lump in his throat. That was the most amazing thing anyone had ever said about him.

"Also, you like monsters," Loki added with a too sharp grin. "And in case you didn't know, I am one."

"No, you're not," Eddie said in automatic defence. Loki's past actions hadn't entirely been his own.

"Aren't I?" Loki released his thigh, sat back a little, and closed his eyes as his skin changed to blue. Once he opened his eyes again they were red.

"Wow," Eddie breathed, reaching out to touch some of the markings on Loki's face. "That is amazing."

Loki leaned back to keep Eddie from reaching him as his skin returned back to it's usual pale complexion. "Don't. You would freeze your hand. I'm a monster, remember. It is in my nature to hurt others. And for whatever reason, you like monsters."

"Bullshit," Eddie said. "Yeah, you're different from me but that doesn't make you a monster." He scooted closer to Loki and grabbed his hand to entwine their fingers. "And I think I'm kinda like Hagrid. Where others see monsters, I see people worth loving, I guess."

"Ah," Loki whispered, and frowned. "And you are nothing like that witless, bearded half-giant."

Eddie wasn't surprised Loki got that reference. During their negotiations on behalf of the Avengers and New Asgard, Eddie learned Loki had magic and enjoyed reading, so naturally he'd recommended the Harry Potter series. Not even two weeks later Loki told him they were absurd stories for children, and could he recommend something else to read. Eddie had asked Loki why he had finished all seven books if he hadn't enjoyed them, but all he got in response was a snooty look as Loki stalked off to get his hands on the 'A song of Ice and Fire' series, Eddie's new recommendation. Eddie didn't want to be in the room when Loki found out that series wasn't complete yet.

"As for Venom," Eddie said, staring down at their joined hands, wanting to get the subject over and done with. "If we find him and if he wants to get back with me, he'd just be a part of me. Kinda like a package deal. We would still have our relationship, whatever that may turn out to be."

Loki's expression turned contemplative as he regarded Eddie quietly. "And I suppose having a symbiote would make you less prone to life-threatening injuries and greatly prolong your natural life-span."

"Er," Eddie said, because he hadn't considered their different life-spans before at all. "I guess so."

"Very well." Loki pulled Eddie closer. "I suppose we could see where our relationship would go with the klyntar added to the equation." And he hauled Eddie into the bedroom and no more was said for quite a while.

The next thing on the list of Team Rescue was getting their hands on a spaceship, since Quill refused to let them have his and the ship Thor and co had used to get to earth was damaged to the point that it was barely hanging together.

"Don't bother," Rocket said when Stark laid out his plans for a state of the art spaceship with a million technological bells and whistles. "It would take too long to build. Just put something together that will get us through the portal and onto a planet and then we'll buy a ship there." He shrugged. "Or steal one. I'm good with either option."

"You expect them to accept Visa in outer space?" Rhodes commented in a deadpan tone. Eddie looked down to hide a snicker.

"Just bring precious metals. They're worth something anywhere in space," Rocket said in a bored tone as he examined some of Stark's holographic plans. He moved his paws around, changing most of the design.

"Precious metals like gold? Or precious metals like this?" Stark slipped off his wristwatch and slid it across the table.

Rocket picked it up, pulled a doodad from his belt and scanned the item. He looked up at Stark with wide eyes. "What is this? Where did you get it?"

"Synthetic vibranium. I make that in my lab." Stark's smile was nothing if not smug. "Think that will buy us a spaceship?"

"Ha!" Rocket slid the watch back to Stark. "Bring enough of that and we'll probably be able to buy that entire galaxy. One ship won't be a problem."

It took two months to build the ship. "A real rush job but we have to make do," Stark told anyone who would listen. In the meantime Stark, Loki, Rocket and Dr Banner put together a device for the tesseract that would be mounted on the front of the ship but could be controlled from inside.

Eddie was eternally grateful when Rhodes pulled him aside one afternoon, handed him two small guns and spent the afternoon with him on the shooting range, instructing him on proper gun safety and showing him how to shoot. Eddie had pretty decent aim but he didn't think he'd ever be as comfortable with weapons as almost everyone around him seemed to be.

Rocket took one look at Eddie's two new guns, snickered, and gave him a blaster pistol. "Just aim and pull the trigger, nothing to it, even a guy like you should be able to handle it."

Eddie wasn't sure whether to be grateful or offended.

Loki spent quite some time with Dr Strange and Wong, creating a magical device to track Ellie. It was made up of crystals and some of Ellie's blood, which the X-men had a sample of, and it was able to be plugged into the tesseract device to triangulate her location.

Honestly, most of that stuff went right over Eddie's head. But to make himself useful he volunteered to take charge of supplying the ship and its crew. He ordered sleeping bags, toiletries, and case after case of MRE's. He spent more than one afternoon with Dr Jean, putting together as comprehensive a medical kit as the ship could carry.

Together with Stark he also outfitted everyone, including himself, in lightweight, bullet-proof body armour, including built in holsters for whatever weapons they carried. Even Dr Jean was given a small blaster pistol by Rocket while he told her, "Better be safe than sorry, Doc. We got no clue what we're getting into."

And then finally the day arrived when the ship was done, the tesseract device worked, and they gathered outside the compound to say goodbye to their loved ones. Since Venom was in outer space and Loki was going on the mission, Eddie hadn't expected anyone to show up for him, but he was pleasantly surprised when Dan and Annie appeared in front of him.

"Miss Potts contacted us," Annie said, as Eddie gave them both a heartfelt embrace. "She told us what's happening. Jesus, Eddie, you're going into outer space?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised by that myself, but Venom is involved so they need me to wrangle him, maybe," Eddie said, ducking his head, feeling oddly embarrassed.

"You're looking more and more like a hero to me," Dan said with a grin and a slap on Eddie's shoulder. His wedding ring glinted in the sun while Annie showed a small but noticeable baby bump. Eddie didn't mind any of that. He was happy for them, truly, and he was glad he could call them his friends.

He glanced over at Loki, who was held in a firm embrace by Thor.

"Show some decorum, brother," Loki said, but Eddie noticed he hugged Thor back with plenty of strength.

"Just promise me you'll come back, Loki. Promise me," Thor muttered into Loki's shoulder.

Eddie looked back at Dan and Annie. "Let me introduce you to my boyfriend."

After half an hour of mingling and laughter and tears, Stark pulled himself away from Potts and Rhodes and clapped his hands. "Okay people, enough with the waterworks. Let's get this show on the road."

A few more hugs later they were all filing into the ship. Just as Rocket and Stark sat down behind the controls and hit the button to close the door a voice could be heard shouting across the compound.

"Wait! WAIT!"

A red and black blur rushed across the lawn, followed by another figure at a much more sedate pace. Deadpool, carrying a huge duffle bag, jumped aboard the ship. A muscled man with a grey crewcut, a metal arm and a duffle bag of his own followed him.

Wolverine took one look at the duo and growled, "No, Wilson, you ain't coming."

"Colossus called us," Deadpool panted, leaning his black-gloved hands on his thighs to catch his breath. "After you guys had all the fun with that red tentacle monster that ate Captain America, rest his soul, I made him promise that next time something big went down he would let us know." He straightened and put his hand over his heart. "And Miss Overkill has done me a solid a time or two, so I am just returning the favour."

"Fine," Wolverine grumbled, apparently recognizing a losing battle when he saw one. "At least you'll make convenient canon fodder."

Deadpool plopped down on the bench beside Nebula. "It's so nice to be needed," he sighed as the other guy sat down beside him. "Oh, hey, everyone, this is Cable, my totally not-platonic roommate." He leaned over towards Nebula. "That means we're fucking like cute little murder bunnies."

"I don't care," Nebula replied.

Cable sighed the sigh of the long-suffering and gave Deadpool a look that was both fond and exasperated.

Eddie, seated across from the newcomers, grabbed Loki's hand when Stark started the engines. Loki gave him an amused look but also gave his hand a little squeeze.

"Aww," Deadpool said, latching onto Cable's metal arm and leaning his head on Cable's shoulder. "They're like us. I had no idea this was going to be a romantic cruise." And he started humming the theme song for 'The Love Boat'.

"Is everyone sitting down, seatbelts on?" Stark glanced at Rocket. "Had your rabies shots?"

"Less talking and more flying, Stark." And with that Rocket steered their ship off into the sky.


	9. Chapter 9

Even though travelling through deep space messed with your internal clock, the day still caught up with them. Yanto was already asleep in his pod, and Ellie and Din left IG-11 behind in the cockpit to monitor their progress, though Din assured her there was really no need as the automatic pilot took care of pretty much everything. Still, Ellie liked the idea that at least someone was keeping watch.

Ellie gave Din some time alone in the cargo hold to use the facilities and wash up, and once he was done Din did the same for her. The facilities were basic and exposed but functional and by waiting in the cockpit while the other took care of business they made it work without much fuss.

Ellie unrolled her sleeping pad in the cargo hold and buried it beneath a pile of blankets while Din crawled inside his sleeping cell and closed the door. Yanto's pod stood near the head of Ellie's pad and the baby slept on as Ellie got under the covers just as the lights around her dimmed.

Across the room another mind blinked into being which answered the question if Din slept with his helmet on or off. Ellie snuggled deeper inside the blankets while listening to Din's surface thoughts. It was comforting to her, to have a friendly mind nearby to listen to as she fell asleep. It reminded her of being back at the mansion, surrounded by dozens of buzzing minds.

Din's thoughts were a little chaotic and slightly panicked and a string of words formed a very loud thought. 'GO TO SLEEP, ELLIE.'

Ellie burst out laughing and buried her face in her pillow. "Good night, Din," she called across the room. "Sleep well."

She tried to stay out of his mind, she really did, but she hadn't been lying when she told Din that she couldn't turn it off. She could block and shield pretty well, but as her mind relaxed into sleep her defences also relaxed and Din's thoughts seeped through whether she wanted to or not.

Ellie caught an image of herself, and Din remembering thoughts from earlier where his mind had taken him to some very naughty places. Ellie grinned against her pillow. It's not as though she wasn't used to it, having spent years living surrounded by teenage boys, but for some reason knowing Din had sexy thoughts about her was endlessly entertaining. Not to mention flattering.

"You should go to him and make him give us lots of orgasms," Venom rumbled in her mind.

"What the fuck, Venom?" Ellie shook with laughter at the idea of marching up to Din and demanding orgasms. "That is not how that works. You got no moves, man."

"Orgasms are good and he wants to have them with us so we should get them," Venom pointed out with all the logic of an asexually reproducing species.

"No," Ellie said between bouts of laughter. "Just because he's thinking about it doesn't mean he actually wants it, and even if he did want it doesn't mean it's a good idea. That guy is our boss and I don't want to ruin this."

"That makes no sense. Humans are incomprehensible." Venom coiled in her belly, warming her insides. "I could help with orgasms right now."

"It's really not the right time for that now, Venom." Ellie cast a quick glance at the pod near her head. There was no way she was semi-masturbating with her symbiote with a baby asleep a foot away, not to mention Din listening in across the room. The man was still awake and would hear everything.

Venom sighed and settled behind her ribs in a sulk.

Yes, for all the mental flack she'd given Eddie Brock and his hentai relationship with his alien BFF, Ellie had since then experienced the delights of added tentacles during masturbation. Not at first, no. Ellie had battled a depression for months and had no sexual desires to speak of, and Venom had been mourning Eddie and hadn't brought it up either.

It wasn't until eight months into their space adventure that Ellie was starting to feel better and her libido made a timid return. By that time, though, she was already so used to living with Venom and felt so comfortable with him that she hadn't felt all that weird telling him she wanted to masturbate and if he was okay with that. He was.

The first time, Venom didn't get involved but just enjoyed the ride. The second time, a week or so later, he'd offered to lend a tentacle and Ellie had accepted because why not. They were stuck together anyway, so they might as well enjoy it.

Theirs wasn't an epic romance, or even a romance at all. They were friends who shared a body and with that came sharing sex. Ellie liked to think of it as the alien version of friends with benefits.

But during the last year she hadn't been at all attracted to anyone or had the desire to have sex with someone other than her symbiote. That was until now. She remembered the swooping feeling during her brief dance with Din, and seeing his thoughts about her own naked body and what he wanted to do with her certainly had an effect on her.

Sighing, she turned on her other side and shifted her focus from Din's mind to Yanto's. There she found soft dreams of frogs and markers flying over paper and she focussed on that until she fell asleep.

Starting any kind of relationship with her new boss really would be a monumentally stupid thing to do. There was too much to lose. Yanto, IG and Din himself. No, they were much better off just being friends.

The next day, or what passed for a day in deep space, brought with it a ruffled baby blinking sleepily at her from under her blankets. Yanto had woken sometime during the night and crawled into bed with her apparently. Ellie didn't mind.

She pressed a kiss to his fuzzy head. "Morning, little bean. Sleep well?"

Yanto babbled a few meaningless words and wormed himself out from under the blankets. He toddled over to Din, who was already wearing full armour, and grabbed his shin.

"Morning, womprat," Din said, picking the baby up. Yanto cooed and waved his little hand at the drawing he'd made yesterday and Ellie had taped on the door of the weapons compartment. "And that answers the question of what you'd like to do today."

IG-11 climbed down the stairs. "Would anyone like breakfast?"

Din shook his head. "I already had some ration bars."

Raising her hand, Ellie sat up in bed. "Yes, please, IG." She would never turn down someone wanting to wait on her, though she had made sure IG really didn't mind doing so. He assured her he didn't and in fact enjoyed his new programming and his new role in people's lives.

"We should be stopping in about an hour for fuel," Din said once they were seated in the cockpit, Ellie washed and dressed and with a big bowl of porridge and fruit in hand. Yanto sat in her lap and she alternated feeding him and herself. Yanto had a healthy appetite and had so far eaten everything IG served them, for which Ellie was grateful. She had no idea how to handle picky eaters.

"After that it's about five more hours until Naboo." Din pressed a few buttons in front of him while Ellie ate the last of her porridge.

"That reminds me," Ellie said, stood up and placed Yanto in Din's lap. Yanto immediately tried to push the same buttons as Din had.

Ellie disappeared down the cargo hold and appeared a minute later carrying a large bag. "Here," she said, setting the bag at Din's feet and opening it.

"Ellie, what the hell?" Din said as he stared at the contents of the bag. Credits and more credits of every imaginable currency.

"For fuel and repairs," Ellie said and scooped up a handful of credits to give to Din. He slowly pushed her full hand away, though.

"Ellie, I can't accept this. I hired you. I can't accept your money."

"It's not my money!" Ellie said a little louder than she'd meant to. "It's blood money." She inhaled a deep breath to calm herself. "All the scum we've hunted we've also robbed. These credits were earned over the lives of slaves and children trafficked for sex. We neither want or need it. Please just spend some on this ship. And if it helps, this is my home now too, right? So that would just be me spending some credits on my own home."

Din was quiet for a long moment while Yanto reached for some of the credits in Ellie's hand. "All right," he finally said. "I'll order some repairs while we refuel. The ship could use new fuel lines and outer engine casings."

"Awesome," Ellie said and flopped down in her seat. She and Venom had accumulated a small fortune over the past year but knowing where it came from had made her reluctant to spend any of it on things other than their basic needs. Now though she was happy some of it was going to a good cause. Din deserved a shiny repaired ship. "Is this planet developed?" she asked, glancing at Din.

"Reasonably. But Naboo is a modern planet with all amenities."

"Oh, okay. Then I'll hold off my shopping spree until we get to Naboo." Ellie wasn't planning on buying much for herself other than some more books and maybe some new boots. But Yanto could definitely do with some new clothes and items such as a baby bath and a potty. Din now used an empty ammunition container for potty training his kid but Ellie vowed to change that.

They spent four hours on a tropical planet getting fuel and a few repairs. Ellie and Din, together with IG and Yanto took a stroll around the town but aside from a frozen refreshment that reminded Ellie of shaved ice there wasn't much interesting to be had. Yanto, and Ellie if she were honest, did enjoy the many colourful birds that flew around and twittered and squeaked.

The remaining lag of the journey to Naboo was spent in the cockpit. Ellie provided Yanto with paper and markers and the child kept himself entertained on a blanket on the floor.

"How do you ever get used to this?" Ellie asked as she stared out the window, having difficulty comprehending what she was seeing after Din put the ship in hyperspace.

"Get used to what?" Din asked, glancing over his shoulder at her.

"This!" Ellie swept her arm around. "Space! You fly through it as if it's nothing, but you're actually flying around a galaxy on a daily basis."

Din chuckled. "I'm used to it. You don't remember anything from when the Soma took you?"

"Nothing," Ellie said with a frustrated sigh. "And neither does Venom. To us, one moment we were on earth and the next we woke up on planet shithole."

Din remained quiet for a moment and when he finally spoke his voice was soft. "That must have been difficult, losing everyone you knew."

"Yeah," Ellie whispered. "It was hell at first. It's better now but it was really hard when we just got here. I still miss everyone. I dream about them. Fuck, the other day, right before I met you, I had a dream where Wade showed up at my door to drag me into one of his shit-shows and I was so happy to see him that I fucking cried. And I hate Wade!" Ellie's chuckle sounded a little watery and she cleared her throat.

"Was there someone you didn't hate that you lost?"

It took Ellie a moment to decipher what Din was actually asking. "Oh, you mean a girl or boyfriend? No, not really. I dated Yukio for a while. She was real smart and funny and pretty. Also a mutant at our school. But she was super ambitious, had this whole plan for the rest of her life, got into college at the other side of the country and I wasn't really into the idea of a long distance relationship for the next four years. And she got frustrated at my lack of ambition, I think. All I wanted was to be an X-men and kick bad guys' butts, and Yukio wanted to change the world." Ellie shrugged, having accepted the outcome of their relationship some time ago. "We're better of as friends. What about you? Any significant others tucked away on a planet somewhere?"

"No. I've had a few flings over the years but nothing serious." Din seemed unconcerned by this. "Do you have any chance of getting home?"

Ellie released a bitter laugh. "Unless you have the secret to travelling between galaxies hidden somewhere on this ship, no, we're stuck here." Venom coiled inside her chest, as he usually did when trying to comfort her.

"I'm sorry that happened to you," Din said while Yanto looked up at her from the floor and offered her a yellow marker.

"Yeah," Ellie agreed. "I've stopped being sorry some time ago and now we're just trying to make the best of it." She gave Din a small but genuine smile. "I'm just really glad I met you."

Din ducked his head a little, but Ellie caught his reply loud and clear. "Same."

They arrived on Naboo just as night fell over the city where the bounty was most likely hiding. Din set the ship down in a large port and booked them two nights. Then they had dinner, Ellie and Yanto in the cargo hold and Din in the cockpit, and afterwards they turned in early for a good night's sleep.

"You know I hired you to watch the child, right? Not to help me do my job," Din said, clearly amused by Ellie's question if he needed help on his hunt.

Ellie felt oddly embarrassed. "I know. I'm just not used to playing the housewife while the husband goes off to work."

That earned her a laugh from Din. "You're no housewife, Ellie. You are the bodyguard to the most coveted prize in the entire galaxy." Din's shoulders stiffened for a moment and he placed a gloved hand on her shoulder. "If you run into serious trouble that you can't handle, IG can fly the ship and get you out of here."

"We're not leaving you behind," Ellie said, insulted Din would think such a thing of her.

"I can take care of myself, but if your only option to keep the child safe is to take the ship and leave the planet I want you to take it."

Ellie gave a reluctant nod, understanding what he was saying. "Fine, but we will come back for you. We really need some good, long-distance communicators. I'll buy some."

"That's good idea." Din gave her shoulder one final, affectionate squeeze. "I might not be back before nightfall. Take IG-11 with you when you go out." He turned to look at the droid. "IG, nurse and protect."

"Always," IG replied.

"We're going to play tourists and do some shopping. Not sure when we'll be back, but not too late in the evening. Yanto and me will probably treat ourselves to dinner in town."

"You do that." And with a final nod, Din walked down the ramp, his big rifle strapped to his back.

"Ready for a day on the town?" Ellie asked IG as she got Yanto settled in his pod.

"Yes. Naboo appears to be an architecturally pleasant planet," IG said as he waited for Ellie and Yanto to leave the ship before raising the ramp.

IG wasn't wrong, Ellie realized as they booked a hover shuttle to fly them into the city centre. The city around them was beautiful. Bright and clean, with wide streets and mountains in the distance. It was a night and day difference with planet Shithole.

"Damn," Ellie muttered to herself as she looked around in awe. "Why couldn't the Soma have sold us here?"

"Beautiful world, but less prey to hunt," Venom rumbled in her mind.

"You're right about that," Ellie whispered. The minds around her belonged mostly to honest, hard-working people going about their day, living their lives. There was hardly a criminal to be found.

Yanto shifted in his pod from left to right, taking in the trees and fountains and some children playing in a square. The whole city had a decidedly European feel to it, Ellie decided. Something like Barcelona or Rome. Not that she'd ever been to those places, but she was an avid watcher of travel videos on Youtube during the nights her PTSD played up and wouldn't let her sleep.

God, she missed Youtube. And Instagram. And every other piece of social media she had ever used.

They walked around the city for an hour or so, just taking it all in, and then they came across an electronics store and they were ready to shop.

IG needed some parts to fix the toys Ellie had bought on Nevarro, and Ellie found some pricy but state-of-the-art communicators. She also picked up a holocaster that would show images and some entertainment chips to go with it for the long hours spent in space. They also found an honest to goodness baby store and Ellie went a little nuts shopping when she learned the store had free same day delivery to their ship in the port. Clothes, toys, child-sized utensils and bowls, a baby bath and potty, toiletries and a plush wookie almost as big as Yanto himself. Yanto held onto it in his pod for the rest of the day.

Once outside again, they came across something Ellie hadn't seen in a long time.

Actual law enforcement officers.

"Miss, do you have a permit for this IG unit?" a man in a black uniform with a white helmet asked.

"I am a nurse droid to this child," IG said, sounding slightly affronted.

"I'm still going to need to see a permit. All IG units are classed as dangerous and need special permits."

"Certainly," Ellie said and grabbed a notebook from her shoulder-bag. She showed it to the officer, meanwhile altering his thoughts so he believed he'd seen a permit.

"That seems to be in order," the officer said and waved them along.

They had lunch in a small restaurant that served fried fish which was delicious. Yanto ate a whole fish by himself and even Venom, who normally didn't much care for dead food, admitted it was tasty. The afternoon was spent in a huge museum which in itself was already a work of art with its high arches and mosaic floors. Inside they learned about the history of the planet and some of the creatures that lived there.

Ellie stared at the gigantic skeletons of some of the aquatic monsters found locally and vowed to never, ever go swimming on Naboo.

Outside they ran into more law enforcement officers.

"Miss, do you have a permit for this IG unit?" a female officer asked.

Ellie sighed and pulled out her notebook. Just as she was altering the officer's thoughts she caught a thought from someone behind her, wondering if she was a Jedi.

Turning around so fast she almost fell over, Ellie latched onto that mind and found an older woman carrying a shopping bag watching them from across the street. Ellie finished quickly with the officers and gently urged the woman to approach them.

"Is this person a threat to the child?" IG asked, moving closer to Yanto's pod.

"No, but she has information I want." Ellie really didn't like hijacking people's brains, unless they were scum. This woman was innocent but needs must. Ellie took her to a nearby bench and questioned her for the next hour before sending her on her way with the idea she'd had a normal and pleasant conversation with a friend.

Ellie's mind reeled from all she'd learned, though. She picked a nearby restaurant that served meat and vegetable filled flat-breads for dinner but found herself distracted all throughout the meal. She couldn't wait to tell Din all she'd found out.

They booked a shuttle back to the port just after the sun set and Yanto nodded off in his pod, leaning against his stuffed wookie. Din was already back on the ship and with him a big black block of something with a face sticking out of it. Din was looking through all the purchases that had already been delivered to the ship.

"Did you run into any problems?" Din asked her the moment the ramp closed behind them.

"Nah, we had a great day, but I did get some shocking information," Ellie said in a single breath, unable to contain herself. "Have you ever heard of Darth Vader?"

Din tilted his head and considered the question. "I believe he was the emperor's right hand man and all around bad news."

"Yeah," Ellie agreed with a grim smile. "All that, and he was a Jedi."


	10. Chapter 10

Din sat on the bench in the cargo hold, forearms resting on his knees, head lowered, mind reeling from all the information Ellie was sharing.

Ellie paced the cargo hold, gesturing wildly to express her obvious upset with the whole situation. "This woman I found used to be the secretary for this other woman who used to be queen until she became a senator, which...how do politics even work in this world? Anyway, this woman named Padme met this Jedi named Anakin Skywalker and they hooked up, even got married although the Jedi weren't allowed to marry or have lovers apparently, which historically has just been such a good idea to deny people their instincts and desires."

Inhaling a deep breath, Ellie quickly checked up on the child to make sure he was still asleep, which he was, and then she continued her monologue. "So they're secretly married and he knocks her up but meanwhile he was all buddy buddy with this other guy from Naboo, the supreme chancellor Palpatine, who incidentally became the evil emperor Darth Sidious." Another deep breath. "This woman wasn't sure how Anakin was involved but she knew he was involved with the destruction of the Jedi. Very, very few Jedi got out alive as far as she knew and she had no clue where any of them were."

Ellie stopped pacing and looked down at Din with an expression that was both supremely pissed off and heartbroken. "So poor Padme dies for reasons and Anakin becomes Darth Vader, I don't know how that worked but he just became this big bag of dicks who spent most of his time killing innocents with his super duper Jedi powers until some two decades later his son Luke Skywalker, who everyone thought had died with his mother shows up to kick his ass. And then he dies and the evil emperor dies and Luke Skywalker may or may not be a Jedi now."

Din had trouble comprehending all he was hearing. These were the people the armourer claimed were the child's kin? Din didn't like that idea at all. Then again, the armourer had told him it was ultimately up to him to decide who the child's kin were and where to place him. Which meant he could simply decide that Ellie was the child's kin and since Ellie worked for him they could all stay together.

Din knew he did not want to give the child up. Nor Ellie, to be honest. His life had taken a decidedly strange turn recently but he couldn't deny that these events had given him a sense of fulfilment and purpose and even happiness he'd never had before.

"Listen," Ellie said after visibly calming herself down. "I've been thinking and I don't think you should give Yanto to these people. If you don't want him anymore –"

"I agree."

"- then I will gladly take him off your hands...wait, what?" Ellie looked down at him with wide eyes. "You're agreeing?"

Din smiled and nodded his head. "Yes, I don't like the sound of these Jedi so I'm keeping him. And you're his babysitter, so I'm keeping you, too."

"Yes, thank you!" Ellie threw herself at him and give him a brief hug which Din could barely return before she pulled away from him with a huge grin. "That went easier than I thought. I was prepared to make lists with bullet points and stuff to convince you."

"No need. The facts speak for themselves." Din got up and stretched for a moment. The hunt had been a fairly straight forward one but he'd still had a tussle which had pulled something in his shoulder. "You can train the kid, right?"

"Yeah, absolutely. I've got some ideas where to begin but I'd rather not do it in a spaceship while in space," Ellie said with an almost embarrassed smile. "Both our powers can be a little volatile so it would be best if we found some solid ground out of the way of anyone else. No need to let people see what Yanto or me can do."

Din considered this for a moment. "I know a place. We'll drop the bounty off on Nevarro and between that bounty and your bag of credits we should be able to take some time off." He gestured at the bounty he'd frozen in carbonite.

"Wait, that's an actual person?" Ellie stepped closer to the bounty and poked him in the forehead. Then she looked at him with a chuckle. "I thought you'd picked up some frankly hideous wall-art but I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't want to insult your weird taste in art."

Din laughed and then almost tripped over the pile of purchases. "Did we really need all of this? It seems a little excessive."

Ellie gave him a look of sheer disbelief. "A potty and some toys and clothes are not excessive. Jesus, Din, you are so lucky you found me so that poor child no longer has to poop in an munition container."

Laughing again, Din had to admit Ellie may have a point. When it came to the day to day caring for the child, Ellie seemed to have a better idea what to do than he did. He really was lucky to have found her. "Tell me about your day. What did you see in the city?"

And Ellie was off telling him about everything they'd done. Din listened while he helped her sort through her purchases and put them away in some of the crates lining the wall. He enjoyed her sense of humour and colourful descriptions of their adventures.

Soon they decided to turn in so they could get up bright and early and head towards Nevarro. Din slept well, dreaming of wandering a beautiful city with Ellie and the child. In his dream he wasn't wearing a helmet but for some reason it didn't bother him. That was until he woke up the next morning and wondered why he would dream of such a thing.

The child had snuck inside Ellie's bed again, one large, green ear covering some of Ellie's tousled black hair. Din stared at them while he fastened the last of his armour.

"Bleep bloop," sounded from near his feet.

"No, R3, he is not your new master," IG said as he climbed down the stairs. "I have fixed the droid. He is a R3 mini unit. Similar to a R3 full size unit, but much smaller. Built for extreme stealth while collecting data. I have added a few nursing and protection protocols similar to my own."

The little droid peered up at Din for another moment until it noticed movement on Ellie's bed. It rolled over at once. "Bloop bleep bleep."

"Yes, the small green one, that's the one," IG said while Din looked on in disbelief. Another fucking droid. It just had to be another fucking droid. And the child was already awake and climbing out of bed, greeting the droid with excited gurgles, so he couldn't conveniently drop the thing down the garbage shoot and be rid of it.

"Oh, you fixed it," Ellie said and immediately covered up a huge yawn with her hand. "What a cute little fellow. What's his name?"

"He responds to R3. Breakfast?" IG already got a crate of food down while the child dragged his new plush wookie out of bed and showed it off to the droid, who poked at it with a metal appendage that appeared from a hidden compartment. Much to his amusement, Din noticed that all three were about the same height. He wasn't the only one.

"Oh my god," Ellie said with the sappiest expression on her face. "Look at them. Have you ever seen anything more adorable?"

Din remained quiet but privately he had to admit the trio of baby, droid and stuffed wookie were pretty darn cute. What had his life become? He was a Mandalorian, a bounty hunter of great repute and here he was getting sappy over a droid and a stuffed animal. He didn't mind the feelings he had for the child, but the rest of it? Yeah, no, he wasn't sure what to make of that.

The child toddled after the bleeping droid, stuffed wookie dragging behind him.

"Time to try out that new potty, Din," Ellie said with a huge grin as she stretched out on her bed. "Go on."

Sighing he got the potty down and manoeuvred the child out of his pants and onto the thing while the small droid bleeped at him in confusion and poked him in the shin with a metal appendage.

"Stop that," Din growled while the child went about his business.

"Bloop," said the droid and poked him again.

"I will sell you for scraps."

"Bloop bloop." More pokes.

Meanwhile, Ellie was rolling around her bed with a pillow pressed over her mouth to hide her laughter.

And yet, while Din was questioning his sanity he also realized he had never felt this happy before.

The journey to Nevarro passed quietly. They made a quick stop for fuel and Ellie insisted he spent some of her credits on the ship, so Din had all the tanks emptied and professionally cleaned before filling up on water. He also had them check and fix all hydraulics.

The child seemed endlessly entertained by his new friend the R3 droid, which made Din feel slightly guilty for isolating the kid so much. It was necessary for a time, of course, but he vowed to allow the child time to socialize whenever possible.

Ellie fiddled around with the new holocaster she'd bought, trying out the different entertainment programs it provided. Later that evening after Din had eaten dinner in the cockpit he climbed down the ladder and found everyone seated on Ellie's sleeping pad. Ellie in the middle, the child in her lap, Venom as a torso and head on one side and IG on her other side with R3 right in front of her.

"Come on, this show is pretty funny," Ellie said, waving him over and urging IG to move over to make room. Din thought about refusing for a moment, just on principle, but then he wondered why he would do that. He had nothing else to do.

So, carefully, he sank down beside Ellie, his leg pressing against hers. The child looked up at him with a bright smile and Din gently stroked his hand over the little green head. The child briefly leaned into the contact before focussing his attention back on the holo-show.

It involved a simple, animated story of two young brothers, their sister and the family loth-cat getting into one misadventure after another. It was filled with slapstick, the brothers and sister coming up with the worst possible plans while the loth-cat, who was the smartest of the bunch, had to constantly save the day.

The child giggled uncontrollably and Ellie wasn't much better. Even Din found himself chuckling from time to time. More than once during the show Din discretely glanced at the company around him and wondered how this had become his life. He used to value his privacy, he used to crave being alone in his ship, travelling from job to job, earning enough credits to look after himself and nothing more.

And now here he was, sitting in his ship surrounded by his kid, a young woman and her alien companion and two droids and he felt more at ease than he ever had when he was still alone.

They reached Nevarro the next afternoon. Yanto and wookie went into the pod, and after R3 spent five minutes blooping loudly in protest, Ellie picked him up and added him to the pod, much to the child's delight. It barely fit.

Sighing, Din shook his head and got the carbonite bounty ready for transport. Greef Karga greeted them with a big smile and a full purse for the bounty. Cara took one look at the overcrowded pod, punched him in the arm and called him whipped.

"Where are you off to next?" Cara asked as she and Ellie had a drink after their business with Greef was concluded.

"Sorgan," Din replied. "Ellie needs space and time to train the child so we'll spend a few weeks there. You want to come?"

Cara seemed to consider his offer for a moment but then she shook her head. "Nah, I'm doing good here. Greef fixed that issue with my chain code and I've got steady work here."

After some more small talk with Cara they made their way back to the ship while meeting up with IG, who had gone his own way to buy some groceries. Ellie insisted on visiting the jawa junk shop before they left.

"We need a camera," Ellie told him, gesturing at the overfilled pod. R3 bleeped at her in confusion. "We need to document these moments."

And so into the junk shop they went, and Din got to listen to Ellie's, admittedly not that bad, attempts at Jawaese as she haggled with the jawa owner over a small camera that still appeared to work.

After the camera was purchased, Ellie spent an hour photographing the child and friends in the pod, IG-11, himself, and even Venom who she coaxed out to pose with the pod for a moment. Din let her have her fun and could even admit to himself that having a picture of his kid might be nice. To that effect he took the camera from Ellie, told her to stand beside the pod and took a few photos with her in it.

They travelled to Sorgan at a sedate pace, for once not hurried along by work or being hunted for the child. Moff Gideon was still out there but the bounty on the child had been called off, at least for the time being. Greef Karga had promised to contact them immediately should that change.

Sorgan was as green and lush as he remembered and he found a spot to park the ship that was private but still within walking distance of the settlement where he first met Cara. They walked there first thing, since Din wanted Ellie to listen around to see if there were any threats to the child or them they should be aware of.

They sat down at a table and ordered tea for Ellie and bone-broth for the child. Din picked him up out of his pod and sat him on a chair, ignoring R3's bleeped protests. Ellie, meanwhile sat perfectly still while a little frown of concentration appeared on her brow.

After a few moments she leaned towards him. "No threats I could find, but see that guy in the blue coat?" She nodded her head to the left and Din noticed a non-descript guy playing a game of cards with two other men. "He's a rapist, wanted on at least five planets. Venom will take care of him tonight. He's hungry anyway."

Din leaned back. He'd been ready to ask her if there was a bounty on the guy's head so he could take him in but this worked, too. He didn't want to think too much about what it meant for Venom to 'take care' of someone, but really, he hunted and killed people for a living so who was he to judge?

Once they were back at the ship, Ellie roped him into helping to train the child. "We need a bad guy, Din. So put on your acting shoes because you're it." Ellie handed him an object that very vaguely resembled a pistol and that she'd put together from a piece of metal, some twigs and lots of tape. "We're not using a real weapon," she said after he chuckled at her creation. "It might go off accidentally."

"Okay, little bean," Ellie said as she situated the child in front of her while Din stood across from them near the treeline. "This is a bad guy." The child gave her a dubious look. "Yes, I know he's your dad, but we're playing pretend so right now he's a bad guy with a weapon." Ellie urged him with a gesture to raise the weapon, which Din did, feeling not at all like a fool.

"When someone points a weapon at you it's important to disarm them as fast as you can. Like so." And with a flick of her wrist, her invisible power ripped the not-weapon out of his hand and into the trees.

The child gurgled in excitement while Din was impressed. That was a very useful trick for the child to know so he hoped she could teach him. While Din went to retrieve the not-weapon, Ellie told the child what to do.

Raising his little hand, the child narrowed his eyes in concentration but before anything could happen Ellie interfered. "Okay, little bean, I see what the problem is. You're trying to use way too much power at once. There is no need for a hurricane when a gust of wind will do. Try to use the smallest amount of power."

The child seemed to contemplate her words, and while Din wondered if he'd even understood, the child raised his hand again, narrowed his eyes, flicked his wrist and tossed Din at least six feet to the right. He landed with an oomph.

"Din!" Ellie came rushing over at him, but Din sat up and waved her off. At least he tried to, but the shoulder he'd pulled during his latest bounty protested fiercely and he hissed in pain. "Oh my god, let me see that." Ellie pulled on his armour, but Din caught her hand.

"Not here." He never took off his armour, save for on his ship. Ellie seemed to understand and with a small smile she helped him to his feet. They found the child, with R3 at his side, looking at them forlornly.

"It's not your fault," Ellie assured him while she picked him up and gave him a gentle hug. "This is why you need to practice. That's how we learn." The child buried his face in her neck and sighed.

Din placed his hand on the child's head. "I'm fine, kid. You'll get better at it. We all have to start somewhere."

Inside the ship the child sat on Ellie's bed, hugging his wookie. Ellie helped Din out of his upper armour while IG brought over the medical kit.

"I just pulled something. It was already bothering me days ago. There's a jar with cream that works well."

Ellie found the jar and opened it while Din turned his painful shoulder towards her. Feeling Ellie's hand rub the cream into his skin did more than just ease the pain. It reminded him that it had been a long time since someone had touched him for reasons other than violence. Only the child did, but that was different than Ellie's soft hand stroking over his naked skin.

"I'm going to put some on your neck. Is that okay?"

In reply Din tilted his head so Ellie could reach. The helmet remained firmly in place but it still took his breath away to feel Ellie's hand slide under the side of his helmet and up his neck, her fingertips brushing against his jaw. No one had touched him there since he was a child and now Ellie stood in front of him, one hand on his good shoulder for balance while the other caressed his skin in ways that drove him a little bit mad. Din inhaled a shuddering breath to try to calm his body.

"I think that's enough. I'll put some more on tonight." Ellie wiped her hand on a towel while she stepped back.

Din wasn't sure he would survive another of these little sessions and he was reminded that he hadn't actually gotten laid in many months. Man, he was in trouble when Ellie was starting to have this much of an effect on him. "Thanks," he managed to mutter as he pulled his shirt back on.

"It's strange," Ellie said as she sank down on her sleeping pad, pulling the child in her lap for a hug. "His power seems to be all or nothing. He seems to have no sense of moderation." She frowned for a moment. "I wonder if there is a manual for Jedi training. Like a book for beginners."

"There might be," Din offered, putting his armour on piece by piece. "Or the empire might have destroyed all of those books."

"Yeah, it might be impossible to find books on Jedi."

Din considered her words for a minute before something occurred to him. "Actually, I might know a place where to find books on Jedi."

"Where?" Ellie asked with a confused look.

"Coruscant."


End file.
